Foreign Ministers of Russia and Turkey Sergey Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the situation in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic during telephone conversations on Sunday. This was reported on October 11 by TASS with reference to a statement by a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
“Our minister held telephone talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov. He asked to warn Armenia [о необходимости] adhere to the ceasefire regime, ”said a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
On October 10, the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that in the conflict between Yerevan and Baku over the ownership of the territory of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, they will support Azerbaijan’s position both at the negotiating table and on the battlefield.
The ceasefire came into force in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 10 at 12:00 local time (11:00 Moscow time) in accordance with the agreements reached a day earlier by representatives of the foreign ministries in Moscow.
The parties also agreed, through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, to begin substantive negotiations with the aim of achieving a peaceful settlement of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh as soon as possible and confirmed the invariability of the format of the negotiation process.
Meanwhile, after reaching an agreement, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced on October 10 that the Azerbaijani armed forces had activated the use of drones in the southern direction of the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and the death of 28 more Karabakh servicemen.
In turn, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan announced an intensive shelling from the Armenian side of settlements in five regions around Nagorno-Karabakh.
After the ceasefire came into force, the parties accused each other of violating it.
Another aggravation of the military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh happened on September 27. The parties shifted responsibility for the aggravation of the situation onto each other.
The conflict in Karabakh began in February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its secession from the Azerbaijan SSR. During the armed confrontation in 1992-1994, Baku lost control over the region and seven adjacent districts. Since 1992, negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict have been conducted within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, headed by three co-chairs – Russia, the United States and France.