The Milwaukee Sentinel – Sep 4, 1993
Turkey moved more soldiers to the Armenian border Friday and demanded Armenia “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw from occupied parts of Azerbaijan. Iran, which also borders Azerbaijan, reportedly sent troops into the troubled former Soviet republic.
Turkey, which has competed with Iran for influence in oil-rich Azerbaijan and other Muslim former Soviet republics, appeared to drop initial concern about Iran meddling in the worsening contact. Armenia backs the Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of Christian Armenians inside Muslim Azerbaijan. Turkey, a secular Muslim nation, sympathizes with Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, but has stayed out of the war between the two former Soviet republics, fearing intervention might lead to a confrontation with Russia.
