Russia declares that it ready for close coordination with Turkey on Karabakh
Russia declared on Thursday that its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu had affirmed in a phone call that they are ready for close coordination to stabilize the situation in Nagorny Karabakh.
In fact, the combat over the breakaway region between majority-Muslim Azerbaijan and Christian Armenia has provoking fears of a large conflict involving regional powers Turkey and Russia.
The Russian ministry reported that the two sides affirmed readiness for close coordination of the actions of Russia and Turkey to stabilize the situation with the aim of returning the settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict to the channel of peaceful talks.
Nevertheless, Turkey did not publish an official statement on about the contents of the phone call, and a Turkish diplomatic source informed AFP that the topic of the discussion was Armenia’s aggression.
The statement of Russia diplomatic came after that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared earlier on Thursday that a ceasefire was only possible if Armenian-backed forces withdrew from the separatist region and the rest of Azerbaijan.
Furthermore, Ankara has supported Azerbaijan in the conflict and the Armenian defense ministry related on Tuesday that a Turkish F-16 that flying to supports the forces of Baku had downed an Armenian SU-25 warplane. Erdogan reported in a televised address: The way for a lasting ceasefire in this region depends on Armenians’ withdrawal from every span of Azerbaijani territory.
Russia that is in a military alliance with Armenia and has also good relations with Azerbaijan, has called for many times for a ceasefire and proposed to act as a negotiator.
Moscow’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya at a briefing on Thursday dismissed that Russia and Turkey supported different sides in the conflict. He said, quoted by the Interfax news agency: We know that Turkey unambiguously supports Azerbaijan. But that doesn’t mean that we are on the other side and support Armenia against Azerbaijan. It’s not like that. He also affirmed that the position of Russia was that the only option now is to cease hostilities and achieve a ceasefire regime.
