Turkey will continue to stand by Azerbaijan and will never leave it alone, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday, as he called on Armenia to cease provocations with the country amid fresh clashes between the two former Soviet states.
Stressing that Ankara’s relations with Armenia were not independent of Yerevan-Baku ties, the Turkish foreign minister called on the country to “respect Azerbaijan’s legitimate rights and interests,” state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
A new bout of clashes have erupted between the troops of Turkey ally Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Karabakh region, in the worst escalation of hostilities since a 2020 war. Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on Monday agreed to a cease-fire, but it fell apart minutes later, according to Azerbaijani media.
On Tuesday, Armenia said at least 49 of its troops were killed in border clashes with Azerbaijan, Reuters reported.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry has accused Armenia of a number of “large-scale provocations” that forced it to retaliate. There were no immediate reports of Azerbaijani casualties.
The latest clashes follow Azerbaijan’s re-establishment of full control over the disputed territory in a six-week conflict in 2020.
“Armenia should cease its provocations and focus on peace negotiations and cooperation with Azerbaijan,” Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter following talks with Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
The clashes are prompting fears that Russia, a key power broker in the region and an ally of Armenia, could find itself entangled in a second war alongside its invasion of Ukraine that began in February.
Ahval