Turkey says Armenia will “pay” as violence renews on Azeri border

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has said that Armenia would “definitely pay” for clashes with Azerbaijan and the deaths of Azerbaijani soldiers, following talks in Ankara with Azerbaijan’s Deputy Defense Minister Ramiz Tahirov, who is also the oil-rich republic’s air force chief, Al-Monitor reports.

Akar said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in touch with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and that the Turkish leader was “following developments very closely.”

“The pain of the Azerbaijani Turk is our pain. We want you to know that any kind of difficulties that you feel there [in Azerbaijan] are felt here [in Turkey] very deeply. The blood of our Azerbaijani brothers will not remain unavenged,” Akar added.

Akar's comments came amid renewed violence on the border between the two countries. Since the situation escalated on the border on July 12, Azerbaijan has launched three unsuccessful infiltration attempts. Since the next morning, the Azerbaijani military has been firing on the Armenian positions, also using large caliber grenade launchers and combat drones to target civilian homes in several border settlements. Four servicemen of the Armenian army have been killed, while Azerbaijan has reported 12 deaths.