In view of the last events in Nagorno-Karabakh, commander of Georgian National Legion Mamuka Mamulashvili, who is fighting in Ukraine against the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, has expressed his support for Azerbaijan.
“The Georgian Legion is ready to send some of its highly qualified officers from Georgia to Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s inalienable part now ridden by an Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian conflict,” Mamulashvili said on Facebook.
Over the last two years the Legion has fought for Kiev. It was the first foreign armed force within the Ukrainian army. It is not known how many Georgians exactly are fighting in Ukraine for the moment. Many of them are former Georgian soldiers and peacekeepers. According to former Georgian president, governor of Odessa Oblast Mikheil Saakashvili, in Ukraine the legion has so far lost six men.
As EADaily reported earlier, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh was escalated on the night of Apr 2. The parties blame each other. Armenia’s Defense Ministry says that the Azerbaijanis tried to get to the rear of the Defense Army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic using tanks, guns and planes. The Azerbaijanis have accused the Armenians of shelling their positions all along the frontline. The Armenian president reported 18 deaths and 35 injuries among the Armenian troops. According to the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry, the Azerbaijani army has lost 200 men against 12 deaths reported by Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry. On Apr 3, the latter declared a “unilateral ceasefire,” but the fight continued.
In 2015, Georgia permitted its citizens to fight for other states – the only exception is illegal armed groups in the Middle East and elsewhere.