Armenia's PM says ready for 'mutual concessions' with Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh
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Armenia is ready to make concessions in its conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh if Azerbaijan is willing to do the same, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday.

"Conflicts need to be resolved on the basis of mutual concessions," the prime minister said. "Nagorno-Karabakh is ready, and Armenia is ready to mirror the concessions that Azerbaijan is ready to make."

Pashinyan was sure that Russia would come to its defense if necessary in its conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. 

"I am confident that as per the situation, Russia will uphold its treaty obligations," he said. 

Armenia is a member of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and has enjoyed the support of Russia, which has a military base in the country.

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets with the country's military leadership, September 27, 2020. /Press Office of Armenian Government /Handout via Reuters

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets with the country's military leadership, September 27, 2020. /Press Office of Armenian Government /Handout via Reuters

Meanwhile, Pashinyan said Turkey's encouragement had motivated its ally Azerbaijan to engage in fresh fighting over the region, and he would not accept peace talks if Turkey were a part of them.

"The decision to unleash a war was motivated by Turkey's full support," he said.

Turkey has backed Azerbaijan's demand for Armenia's withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh as a precondition for any ceasefire and has expressed a desire to be present in any negotiations between the warring nations.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday called for the world to back Azerbaijan in the conflict during his visit to Azerbaijan. His comments came after Russia, the U.S. and France on Monday called for an "unconditional" halt to the fighting. The Western powers had expressed the expectation that Turkey would use its influence with Baku to restore calm, but Cavusoglu instead said world leaders should throw their weight behind Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (3rd L), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (2nd R) and officials from the two countries attend a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, October 6, 2020. /Reuters

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (3rd L), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (2nd R) and officials from the two countries attend a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, October 6, 2020. /Reuters

"To put these two countries on equal footing means rewarding the occupier," the Turkish foreign minister said.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told journalists after a meeting with Cavusoglu that there was no hope of a ceasefire until Armenian troops withdraw from the region.

"Armenian armed forces must leave Azerbaijan's occupied territories," he said. "We will be fighting until the end."

Azerbaijan's defense ministry and the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities both said fighting was continuing on several fronts on Tuesday morning. Both sides continued to claim to have inflicted heavy losses in manpower and equipment and accuse each other of targeting civilian areas.

The two sides have reported nearly 300 deaths since the fighting erupted, including 48 civilians, but the real total is expected to be much higher. Most of the confirmed deaths are from the Armenian side, which has reported 240 fatalities among separatist fighters. Nagorno-Karabakh officials said about 220 soldiers and at least 21 civilians have died in the fighting. Azerbaijani authorities haven't reported military casualties but said 27 civilians have been killed.

A man stands next to a building damaged by recent shelling during a military conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Ganja, Azerbaijan, October 6, 2020. /Reuters

A man stands next to a building damaged by recent shelling during a military conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Ganja, Azerbaijan, October 6, 2020. /Reuters

With the conflict escalation, the director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, on Tuesday warned that fighters from terror groups, including Al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, were fighting in the region. These are hundreds or even thousands of radicals hoping to make money from a new war in the region.

"We are talking about hundreds and already even thousands of radicals hoping to earn money in a new Karabakh war," Naryshkin said in a statement. He is afraid that the South Caucasus region could become "a new launch pad for international terrorist organizations" from where militants could enter states, including Russia.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian government since 1994 at the end of a separatist war following the breakup of the Soviet Union three years earlier.

(With input from agencies)