Turkey is closely following the clashes along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in Karabakh, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, according to the Turkish Cihan news agency.
During a meeting with media in the Turkish city of Kars on Wednesday, Davutoglu said that Turkey would hold consultations with the Azerbaijani side on this issue.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday three Armenian and two Azerbaijani soldiers have been killed in clashes near Nagorno-Karabakh.
Military authorities in Stepanakert said one Armenian soldier was wounded and Azerbaijan suffered at least seven either wounded or killed.
Both sides blamed each other for initiating the skirmishes.
“Stability in the Caucasus is possible only if Azerbaijani lands are released. Turkey will make every possible effort to put an end to violations of the ceasefire,” Davutoglu reportedly said.
Tensions over Karabakh have risen in recent months amid stalled negotiations over the status of the region, which has enjoyed de-facto independence from Baku since the end of a three-year war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces often face each other at close range and shootings along the line of contact are common. The sides routinely accuse each other of violating the terms of a Russia-brokered ceasefire that has largely held since 1994.
The latest incident came shortly before the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Azerbaijan, which started Thursday. The Karabakh issue is expected to feature prominently on the agenda of the two-day visit of the Russian leader to Baku.
(Along with the United States and France, Russia co-chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, an international format tasked with brokering a solution to the long-running conflict).
Also, later this month the United Nations is expected to vote on a Baku-proposed resolution on the “state of human rights in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.”
Similar resolutions under different titles calling for “an end of Armenian occupation” have been passed before, mainly backed by Azerbaijan’s fellow Muslim countries affiliated with the Organization of Islamic Conference. The conflict mediating powers, meanwhile, have remained neutral.
Interestingly, Turkey has taken over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of September.
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