Russia declares Nagorno-Karabakh a point of attraction for militants

Russia sees a threat to its security in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, since the region attracts militants from international terrorist groupings to Southern Caucasus, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service claims. Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers urged parties to the conflict to cease fire.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Turkey is recruiting mercenaries in Syria to participate in the Karabakh conflict on the side of Azerbaijan. Furthermore, Armenians from Syria and Lebanon are going to the zone of hostilities, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reported. Social networks reported about natives of Chechnya who went to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the information was not confirmed.

The region of Transcaucasia can become a springboard for terrorists in the context of the Karabakh conflict, says Sergey Naryshkin, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, as quoted by the TASS. According to him, mercenaries from terrorist organizations fighting in the Middle East are arriving to the conflict zone. Reports mention "thousands of radicals who want to make money on the Karabakh war."

According to the intelligence services of Azerbaijan, several hundred militants – Kurds and ethnic Armenians – arrived from Syria and the Middle East to Karabakh and Armenia.