By Armen Koloyan
ANKARA (RFE/RL) — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu has called on Armenia to “refrain from new provocations” several days after Yerevan and Baku traded accusations over an escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh that left at least three people dead.
Speaking at a gathering of Turkish diplomats in Ankara on Monday, August 8, Çavusoglu reportedly also reiterated his country’s vision of peace in the South Caucasus region.
“After the end of the war [in Karabakh], Turkey is making efforts to ensure peace in the region. Now we are talking not about Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, displaced people, refugees and a conflict that can start again at any moment, but about regional peace and cooperation. We again call on Armenia to refrain from participating in new provocations [against Azerbaijan in Karabakh],” Çavusoglu said.
On August 3, ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said that two Armenian soldiers were killed and nearly two dozen others wounded in what they described as an attack by Azerbaijani forces against their military positions along the Lachin corridor conducted with the use of drones, mortars and grenade launchers.
Baku, for its part, said that an operation codenamed “Retribution” was launched by its forces after one Azerbaijani soldier was killed by Armenian forces in the area on August 1.
