Azerbaijan says reclaims strategic hilltops from Armenian forces

The Azeri military gained control of several strategic hilltops from ethnic Armenian forces in the Madagiz area of Nagorno-Karabakh, as fighting in the disputed region continued overnight, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said on Friday.

Azeri soldiers attacked Karabakh troops at a frontline in the Fuzuli and Jabrayil districts, forcing a retreat, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency cited the ministry as saying in a statement.

The ministry said volunteers brought to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia refused to fight, fearing the intensity of the conflict and heavy losses, which included five armoured vehicles and a large number of Armenian separatists killed overnight.

The Karabakh military shelled Azeri civilian settlements, the ministry said.

“The villages of Khodristan, Alibeyli, Ahmedağali and Seferli in Ağdam province are under heavy fire by the enemy,” it said.

The conflict, which started on Sunday, is the latest flare-up in an ongoing dispute over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region. The fighting has threatened to expand beyond the breakaway state, which is located within Azerbaijan’s borders but controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Turkey has thrown its firm support behind Azerbaijan, saying it is ready to do whatever is necessary to eject Armenian forces from the region. That support has included supplying Syrian mercenaries to the front lines, according to Russia, France and independent observers including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Armenia has also repeatedly accused Turkey of providing Azeri forces with air support, an accusation Ankara denies.

Nagorno-Karabakh shot down Azeri warplane and two drones: Armenia

Nagorno-Karabakh air defence systems shot down an Azeri warplane and two drones on Friday, an online Armenian government platform reported on Twitter.

The Armenian Unified Infocenter also said “scores” of Azeri personnel were killed and armoured vehicles, particularly tanks, were destroyed in frontline clashes.

Turkey’s involvement in Caucasus flare-up aimed at new deal with Russia: expert

Turkey’s involvement in reignited border clashes in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region is aimed at striking a new deal with Russia, Russian analyst Maxim A. Suchkov said early on Friday.

Suchkov said that Turkey does not seek a war in Nagorno-Karabakh, but is using its support  for Azerbaijan as a means “to disguise its interest” and expand its zone of influence in the Caucasus.

As part of Ankara’s strategy achieve its regional interest, Turkey intends to create a “mechanism of interaction” with Russia over Nagorno-Karabakh, “which will be another link in the chain of Putin-Erdoğan deals in Russia’s southern security flank”, the foreign policy expert said said in a series of Twitter posts.

Armenia says ready to work with OSCE to re-establish ceasefire

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was ready to coordinate with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to restore a ceasefire agreement in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Agence France Presse reported.

Armenia “stands ready to engage” with France, Russia, and the United States “to re-establish a ceasefire regime,” AFP cited the ministry as saying in a statement.

France, Russia, and the U.S. co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which was set up in 1992 to mediate in the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey taking new genocidal path: Armenian PM

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Turkey of “once again advancing on a genocidal path”, Reuters reported on Thursday.

He said Ankara’s military was directly leading an offensive by Azerbaiijani forces against ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The situation is much more serious (than previous clashes in 2016). It would be more appropriate to compare it with what happened in 1915, when more than 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered during the first genocide of the 20th century,” Reuters cited Pashinyan as telling Le Figaro newspaper in an interview published late on Thursday.

“The Turkish state, which continues to deny the past, is once again venturing down a genocidal path,” he said. “Turkey’s wish is to strengthen its role and influence in the South Caucasus. It’s pursuing the dream of building an empire imitating the Sultanate and it is embarking on a path that could set the region ablaze.”

Turkey aspires to turn Azerbaijan’s territory into training base for terrorists: Armenia

Turkey has far-reaching goals about deploying Syrian and Libyan mercenaries to Nagorno-Karabakh and aspires to turn Azerbaijan into a training base for “terrorists”, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said.

“Turkey’s actions are violating stability in the region and obstructing the peaceful community’s efforts for cessation of the hostilities. The international community has called on refraining from taking such actions, and Turkey must pay heed to this. The transfer of Syrian and Libyan terrorists to Azerbaijan has far-reaching goals and will lead to devastating consequences for the South Caucasus,” Naghdalyan said.

Deployment of foreign fighters to Nagorno-Karabakh unacceptable: Russia

Russia said during a phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu that Turkey’s deployment of foreign fighters, from Syria and Libya, to Nagorno-Karabakh to support Azerbaijan was unacceptable.

Moscow “stressed the unacceptability of involving illegal armed groups from other regions in the conflict”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The need for maximally balanced steps to provide political and diplomatic assistance to Baku and Yerevan was mentioned,” it said.

The ministry said both diplomats confirmed “readiness for close coordination of the actions of Russia and Turkey to stabilise the situation with the aim of returning the settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict to the channel of peaceful talks”, Agence France Presse reported.