Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh was only possible if Armenian-backed forces withdrew from the separatist region and the rest of Azerbaijan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that a ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh was only possible if Armenian-backed forces withdrew from the separatist region and the rest of Azerbaijan.
"The way for a lasting ceasefire in this region depends on Armenians' withdrawal from every span of Azerbaijani territory," Erdogan said in a televised address.
Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan have been waging battles against Azerbaijani forces since Sunday that have claimed more than 100 lives.
Turkey fully supports Muslim-majority Azerbaijan in the standoff but denies Armenian claims that it is providing military support to Baku.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked for decades in a territorial dispute over Karabakh. Photo: Armenian Defense Ministry/AFPErdogan spoke moments before the presidents of Russia, the United States, and France jointly called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" -- the worst since a war in the early 1990s killed 30,000 and left the region under separatist control.
But Erdogan said the three powers, which have been trying to resolve the conflict through so-called "Minsk Group" talks, had failed in their mission to find a lasting solution and had no right to demand a truce.
"Because America, Russia and France, called the Minsk Group, have neglected this problem for nearly 30 years, their quest now for a ceasefire is not acceptable."
