Armenian PM: Syrian mercenaries, Turkish army in war

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a televised address to the nation on Saturday saying that "Syrian mercenaries and terrorists, and special forces of the Turkish army" are involved in the war raging over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan claimed that "about 150 high-ranking servicemen of the Turkish army are in the command posts of various units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and lead the military operations."

Ankara has denied involvement while publicly siding with Azerbaijan in the dispute.

Heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces this week has killed dozens and left scores wounded.

The fighting is the biggest escalation in years in the decades-long dispute over the region, which lies within Azerbaijan but is controlled by local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia. Cease-fire calls have come from around the globe.

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia and sealed its border with the nation in 1993 to show solidarity with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey already were tenuous due to the the mass killings and deportations of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago.

Pashinyan said the final aim of the operation was "to continue the Armenian genocide today."

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked for decades in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the site of a separatist war fought in the early 1990s and ending in 1994 - three years after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

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