Putin, left, and Erdogan attend a ceremony marking the formal launch of the TurkStream pipeline [Umit Bektas/Reuters]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the news on November 11 during a meeting with a parliamentary group of his party, the Justice and Development, in the capital, Ankara.
“Turkey will join the peacekeeping forces in the [Karabakh] region to monitor the implementation of the deal with Russia,” the Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying.
The Russian-Turkish monitoring center will be located in the Azerbaijani-held part of the Karabakh, according to the Turkish president.
The Karabakh peace deal, that was brokered by Russia, was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan On November 9. Russian troops are being deployed in the region under the agreement to serve as a peacekeeping force.
The Kremlin denied any plans to deploy Turkish peacekeepers in Karabakh. The Turkish involvement will apparently be limited to the joint monitoring center.
The monitoring center will facilitate the implementation of the agreement, which should restore peace to Karabakh and allow the return of all displaced civilians.
