U.S. Secretary of State: We hope Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described in an interview the situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan as dangerous.

“We now have the Turks, who have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that’s taking place in this historic fight over this place called Nagorno-Karabakh, a small territory with about 150,000 people,” Pompeo said.

He stressed that it’s a longstanding conflict and the resolution of that conflict ought to be done through negotiation and peaceful discussions, not through armed conflict, and certainly not with third party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation. 

“We are hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing, and that they will all, before that takes place, get the ceasefire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through this – that is – what is a truly historic and complicated problem set,” Pompeo said.