Armenia seeks help from Turkey, over COVID-19

By Azernews

By Akbar Mammadov

Armenia has requested Turkey for help in the fight against coronavirus, Turkish Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said on 11 April.

Answering local media's questions in a live broadcast, Kalin emphasized that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed this request and the Ministry of Health coordinates the situation.

"We have delivered medical assistance to many countries. This is extremely human. No political account is made here," said Kalin.

"These kinds of requests (for assistance) came from Armenia. Here we did not differentiate between countries or regions, and we will not, independently from our political relations," Kalin said.

In the meantime, Turkey asked China for clarification about aid packages sent to Armenia that bore a reference to Agri Mountain in eastern Turkey that borders Armenia, Turkish Anadolu News Agency said on April 12.

"China's Ambassador to Ankara Deng Li said their aid packages to Armenia was prepared by a local authority and were sent by a private company to Yerevan", said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy.

"The aforementioned local authority only wrote Chinese scripts on the packs, and there was no mention about Agri Mountain. The Ambassador Deng said it was understood that referring to Agri Mountain, the statements in English were added later", Aksoy added.

According to Demiroren News Agency on April 9, the following statements were written on the packages: "May our friendship higher than Mountain Ararat and longer than Yangtze River".

The Chinese ambassador is currently investigating the situation, and will inform Turkey about its results.

"With this incident, Deng said he has full respect for Turkey's sovereignty and unity of land," the Turkish spokesperson added.