Sena Guler
26 February 2021•Update: 26 February 2021
ANKARA
Turkey is opposed to all kinds of coups, the country’s president said on Friday, referring to recent developments in Armenia.
“We are against all kinds of coups. It is especially not possible for us to accept coups,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul following Friday prayers.
He called the Armenian military’s coup attempt "unacceptable" and added that the public is already in a position to lawfully replace Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“If there is a change in administration, the Armenian people will do that. It should be left to the will of the Armenian people,” Erdogan said.
He added that Pashinyan’s fate has already become clear as the public is “tired” of him.
The chief of the Armenian military and other senior commanders on Thursday released a statement calling on Pashinyan to resign.
Pashinyan blasted the military’s call as a coup attempt and urged his supporters to take to the streets to resist.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party has long denounced destructive military coups from past decades of Turkish history, as well as the defeated coup of 2016 by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which used rogue military officers for its putsch attempt.
1992 Khojaly massacre
Marking the 29th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre of Azerbaijanis by Armenian forces, Erdogan said it is unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of people were killed there by tanks and cannons.
He said the incident was important in laying bare the “structure of Armenia.”
On Feb. 26, 1992, with the Soviet Union just dissolved, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in then-occupied Karabakh after battering it using heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by infantry.
The massacre is seen as one of the bloodiest atrocities by Armenian forces against Azerbaijani civilians in the Upper Karabakh region, which was liberated by Azerbaijan forces last fall after decades of occupation.
Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing. In the massacre, eight families were completely wiped out, while 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both parents.
