Yerevan /Mediamax/. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hopes that the reports about Syrian fighters’ involvement in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict "prove inaccurate”. At the same time Mike Pompeo has added that the media will have to ask President Erdogan why he would make that decision.

On October 1, French President Emmanual Macron said: “I would like to state that over 300 Syrian Jihadist fighters drawn earlier from the Syrian city of Aleppo had passed through the Turkish city of Gaziantep en route for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. These fighters are known, tracked and identified, and they are all linked to the ISIS terrorist organization. I have discussed it with President Putin, who confirmed that Russia has the same information.”

Addressing a briefing in Croatia Mike Pompeo has also stated:

“You are referring to the reporting that said that he brought Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan. I have seen that reporting too. That is all I can really say at this point.  I hope it is not the case. We saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya. That created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace. I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well, so I hope that reporting proves inaccurate.

You will have to ask President Erdogan why he would make that decision, but our view has been pretty consistent.  When there are political and ethnic tensions and a longstanding conflict in this border space, and when third parties are bringing ammunitions, weapon systems, even just advisors and allies, you increase the complexity and the risk of loss of lives and you decrease the capacity for peace.”

The Secretary of State has noted that the U.S. has communicated the need for ceasefire and negotiations to both the Azerbaijanis and Armenian leaders and “to the Turks as well”.  

“That was the message that the European Union had for the Turks in their meeting yesterday,” added Pompeo.