Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday stated that Ankara was ready to support Azerbaijan either in negotiations or in combat amid the continuing Nagorno-Karabakh escalation.
“We want the issue (of Nagorno-Karabakh - ed.) to be cardinally resolved. We have made a lot of efforts to do this, but everything was in vain. We have always been beside Azerbaijan - both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. We will continue this solidarity”, Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara after visiting the Azerbaijani Embassy.
According to the senior official, the world community is mistakenly putting Azerbaijan and Armenia on the same plane in the ongoing conflict.
"We tell the whole world: Azerbaijan and Armenia are not the same things. We all together support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Georgia. But Azerbaijan is equated with Armenia, which occupied its lands. This is unacceptable”, the Turkish minister said.
On 27 September, Baku announced a counteroffensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, citing alleged attacks and violations by the Armenian side along the line of control. Yerevan also accused Baku of attacking its forces and ordered full mobilisation, while Azerbaijan has partially mobilised its forces.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority autonomy, proclaimed independence from what was then Soviet Azerbaijan in 1991. A major conflict between Baku and Yerevan ravaged the area until 1994 when the sides agreed to start peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.