Armenia's Yazidi community has formed a group of volunteers ready to be deployed to the breakaway Azerbaijani republic of Nagorno-Karabakh amid a military escalation in the area, a lawmaker at the Armenian National Assembly and a representative of the Yazidi community in the parliament, Rustam Bakoyan, said on Monday
YEREVAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2020) Armenia's Yazidi community has formed a group of volunteers ready to be deployed to the breakaway Azerbaijani republic of Nagorno-Karabakh amid a military escalation in the area, a lawmaker at the Armenian National Assembly and a representative of the Yazidi community in the parliament, Rustam Bakoyan, said on Monday.
"Yesterday evening we formed a Yazidi volunteer squad near the Yazidi temple in the Aknalich village and are ready to leave for Artsakh [Armenian name for Karabakh] today to protect our shared homeland," Bakoyan said, adding that two Yazidis were injured in the fresh standoff.
Tensions along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on Sunday morning when both countries accused each other of military provocations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered support to Baku, saying that Armenia's "occupation" of the area must end. At the same time, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toganyan told Sputnik on Monday that militants deployed by Turkey from Syria were already engaged in combat in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region, also known as the Armenian-majority Republic of Artsakh, announced its independence from what was then the Soviet Azerbaijan Republic in 1991. The secession was followed by armed conflict from 1992-1994, during which Azerbaijan lost control over the region, although internationally, Nagorno-Karabakh is still considered to be part of Azerbaijan's territory.
Although negotiations for the peaceful resolution of the crisis have been conducted since 1992 within the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Minsk Group, headed by three co-chairs Russia, the United States and France military actions periodically erupt there.
