Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday February 19 called on his Azerbaijani counterpart and ally Ilham Aliev to defuse tensions between his country and neighboring Armenia
“with a view to lasting peace”
.
“With the end of the occupation of Karabakh, a historic window of opportunity has opened for lasting peace (between Armenia and Azerbaijan).
It is important that this window of opportunity does not close
,” declared the Turkish head of state after a tête-à-tête in Ankara with Ilham Aliev.
President Erdogan said he hoped that the renewed tension last week between the two Caucasian rivals
“will not be repeated”
.
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other last Tuesday of shooting at their common border, near Nerkin Hand (southeast of Armenia), an incident which left four Armenian soldiers dead, according to Yerevan.
“Total war”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian subsequently accused Azerbaijan of preparing a
“total war”
with Armenia.
During a bilateral meeting on Saturday in Germany, President Aliev and Nikol Pashinian, however, agreed to continue peace negotiations between their countries.
Territorial disputes oppose the two countries which fought two wars, in the 1990s and in 2020, over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, finally reconquered in September 2023 by the forces of Baku.
The situation remains unstable and armed incidents take place regularly.