Turkey's Erdogan says Armenians' withdrawal from Karabakh key to truce

Turkey says ceasefire in the ongoing dangerous flare-up between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh region would only materialize if Armenia takes its forces out of there. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the remarks on Thursday, saying not only did the Armenians have to leave the territory, but they also had to withdraw from every other part of Azerbaijan.

"The way for a lasting ceasefire in this region depends on Armenians' withdrawal from every span of Azerbaijani territory," he said in a televised address.

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it has an Armenian population because ethnic Azeris fled the territory in 1992 when separatists seized it in a move supported by Yerevan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Iran’s Rouhani urges restraint over Karabakh dispute, warns of new war in region

Iran urges restraint while warns about any foreign interference over the recent fighting in the disputed Karabakh region.

Firefight began between the two sides on Sunday after Armenian separatists began waging battles against Azerbaijani forces. More than 100 have reportedly died amid the situation that is the worst one to afflict the region since war in early 1990s.

Although diplomatic negotiations within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group -- a body led by France, the US and Russia -- have ever since failed to remedy the situation, the three powers still called for an immediate ceasefire and resumption of talks.

“We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the relevant military forces,” a joint French, Russian and US statement said on Thursday.

They urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to “commit without delay to resuming substantive negotiations, in good faith and without preconditions.”

But Erdogan claimed that the trio could not come up with such a demand for truce in light of the failure of their previous joint efforts. 

"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," he said.

Turkey, one of Azerbaijan’s strongest regional allies, has, meanwhile, warned it would do all in its power to shore up the country, and is reported to have dispatched the militants that it supports in Syria and Libya there to back up Baku. Ankara denies taking such action.

The Kremlin, nevertheless, warned that there was no alternative to using "political and diplomatic methods" to resolve the crisis, and warned against deployment of foreign forces to the region, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Russia's Security Council said it sees any deployment of fighters from Syria and Libya to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict region as an extremely dangerous development.

French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is home to about 600,000 people of Armenian origin, has also accused Turkey of adopting a "warlike" rhetoric amid the situation.

Armenia recalls ambassador from Israel over arms sales to Azerbaijan

Later on Thursday, Armenian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalyan, said Yerevan has recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations over arms sales by Israel to Azerbaijan.

"Israel's workstyle is unacceptable. The ministry has to call back its ambassador in Israel," she said.

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