Armenia's PM Nikol Pashinyan names conditions for ceasefire in interview to TIME

Armenia and Karabakh have now become a civilizational front line, Armenia’s PM Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with TIME, stressing that Turkey is already intervening militarily on behalf of Azerbaijan, and adding that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vying to extend his influence in the region.

“Armenia and Karabakh have now become a civilizational front line,” Pashinyan told TIME by phone on Oct. 2, accusing Erdogan of sending between 1,500–2,000 Syrian terrorists to the region in support of Azerbaijan. In concert with Turkey’s military incursions into Syria and Libya and its volatile maritime standoff in the East Mediterranean, Pashinyan claimed: “Turkey’s action is nothing short of action aimed at reinstating the Ottoman empire.”

Asked whether his actions in the run-up to the conflict were provocative, Pahsinyan told TIME that when he came to power he made a historic call for a solution that met the needs of Azerbaijanis as well as Armenians. His subsequent statements came only in response to Aliyev’s reiteration of Azerbaijan’s maximalist position, he said.

Pashinyan said Armenia’s conditions for a ceasefire are Turkey “discontinuing [its] engagement” and “the withdrawal of mercenaries and terrorists or their elimination.” He claimed that mercenaries were harassing Azerbaijani villages, demanding the implementation of shariah law, and ransacking shops selling alcohol.