Azernews.Az

Ankara regards any threat against Azerbaijan as a threat against itself, 'Turkiyegazetesi' newspaper quoted Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying on April 8.

He noted that there is an Armenian lobby in the OSCE Minsk Group member states.

Unfortunately, although Turkey is a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, other co-chairs such as Russia oppose Ankara's participation in the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to Davutoglu.

The prime minister believes that the OSCE Minsk Group member states should more actively participate in this conflict's settlement.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population.

Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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