The Azerbaijani armed forces’ recent sabotage was a manifestation of Turkey’s active efforts in the region and showed that Ankara can incite the Azerbaijanis to carry out large-scale military operations, if necessary. This is what Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Turkologist Ruben Safrastyan told reporters today.

According to him, this fits in with the logic of Turkey’s diplomatic game with Russia, and this is why the sabotage was organized on the border with Armenia, not on the line of contact with Karabakh, taking into consideration the fact that the Russian 102nd Military Base is stationed in Gyumri.

The analyst recalled that Turkey has been trying to show that it aspires to become actively involved in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the 1990s, but it is failing since Armenia doesn’t acknowledge Turkey’s mediation, and the Turks know this.

On March 6 at around 5:30 a.m. Azerbaijani servicemen made an attempt of sabotage in the direction of one of the military posts on the northeastern border of Armenia. Thanks to the literate actions of Armenian soldiers, the adversary suffered casualties and pushed back to its starting point, leaving ammunition and a mine detector.

The Armenian side didn’t suffer casualties, and one serviceman was slightly wounded.