ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has rejected media reports that the Pakistani army is fighting the Armenian army alongside the Azerbaijani army in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It may be recalled that the Indian broadcaster Times Now India and some other media reports claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan had sent Pakistani troops to fight alongside Azerbaijani and Turkish troops in the disputed area.
The reports referred to a telephone conversation between two people from the area, which mentioned the presence of the Pakistani army.
However, Foreign Office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said in a statement that the reports were baseless and speculative and that such reports were “extremely irresponsible”.
The Foreign Office spokesman said that Pakistan was deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the Nagorno Karabakh region.
The spokesman said that the heavy shelling by the Armenian army on the civilian population of Azerbaijan was reprehensible and regrettable.
He added that Armenia would have to suspend its operations to avoid threats to peace and security in the region.
Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said that Pakistan supports Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno Karabakh.
He added that Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno Karabakh was in line with UN Security Council resolutions unanimously adopted.
It should be noted that the area of Negorno-Karabakh is spread over 4,400 square kilometers and 50 kilometers is connected to the Armenian border.
Pro-Armenian separatists seized control of the Negro-Karabakh region from Baku in the 1990s, killing 30,000 people.
Tensions between the two countries, which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been high since the beginning of the 1994 ceasefire agreement.
Later, France, Russia and the United States acted as mediators, but in 2010 the peace agreement was terminated once again.
Fresh clashes in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh erupted on September 27, killing at least 23 people on the first day, while Russia and Turkey demanded an immediate end to tensions.
Recent tensions between the Muslim-majority country of Azerbaijan and the Christian-majority country of Armenia have raised fears of bitterness between Russia and Turkey, two of the region’s major powers.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pishinyan called on the international community to keep Turkey out of the conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken to the Armenian prime minister about military tensions and called for an end to the conflict.
On the other hand, Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey accused Armenia of initiating tensions and reiterated its support for Baku.
In his statement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Armenia a major threat to the region and said that full cooperation would be extended to Azerbaijan.
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