Russia Tells Turkey to Help End Azerbaijan-Armenia Fight, Not Fuel It
Russia called on Turkey to help end fighting between their allies Armenia and Azerbaijan as the conflict escalated for a third day. “Any statements about military support or military activity definitely add fuel to the fire,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday on a conference call. Russia expects all countries and “particularly partner states such as Turkey” to do everything to persuade the warring sides to stop the violence, he said. His comments came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged Turkey’s support “with all its means” for its ally Azerbaijan’s military campaign against Armenian forces over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Erdogan said Monday that international negotiations had “failed to solve this problem for 30 years.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged both sides to cease fighting and resume peace talks. The conflict that erupted Sunday appears to be intensifying. The Defense Ministry in Baku accused Armenia on Tuesday of shelling Azerbaijani territory across their border and said it was retaliating. Armenia called the claim “absolutely false,” and accused Azerbaijan of using drones over its territory. The Defense Ministry also issued a warning that it was deploying weapons capable of “indiscriminate destruction of manpower” in Nagorno-Karabakh in response to what it said was Azerbaijan’s use of “large-caliber systems.” The clashes in the Caucasus region bordering Russia and Turkey add to tensions between them over proxy conflicts in Syria and Libya. China, the U.S. and the European Union have also urged a halt to fighting. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an immediate cease-fire in phone talks Monday with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, her government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement Tuesday. In an evident appeal to Russia and Turkey, he said the countries’ “neighbors should contribute to a peaceful solution.” Despite decades of U.S., Russian and French mediation to resolve the conflict, fighting has repeatedly broken out since Armenians took control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.