The New York Times
Published: September 04, 1993
Turkey moved more soldiers to the Armenian border today and demanded that Armenia “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw from occupied parts of Azerbaijan.
The warning came amid reports that Iran, which borders Azerbaijan, was sending troops to the border to block refugees flowing into Iran.
Thousands of refugees from Muslim Azerbaijan have fled to the border region with Iran, seeking shelter from ethnic Armenian troops who are fighting Azerbaijani soldiers for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan.
Armenia backs the Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, although it does not support their goal of becoming part of Armenia. 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 conflict with Russia.
The semi-official Anatolia news agency quoted unidentified Turkish military officials as describing new troop deployments near the border as “normal in view of important developments closely concerning Turkey.” (http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/04/world/turkey-moves-troops-to-armenian-border.html)
