Azerbaijan, Armenia report deadly border clashes

Türkiye on Sept. 13 firmly sided with its regional ally Azerbaijan in the latest deadly outbreak of violence in the Caucasus, telling Armenia to "cease its provocations" against Baku.

Clashes erupted overnight along the volatile Azerbaijan-Armenia border near the occupied region of Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving troops dead on both sides, defense ministries in Baku and Yerevan said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said 49 troops had died, making this the deadliest escalation since the two side fought a six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed more than 6,500 lives.

"Armenia should cease its provocations and focus on peace negotiations and cooperation with Azerbaijan," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu tweeted after a phone call with Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.

Türkiye backed Baku in the 2020 conflict, supplying it with combat drones that helped Azerbaijan claw back large parts of the territory in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan's defense ministry accused Armenia of "large-scale subversive acts" near the districts of Dashkesan, Kelbajar and Lachin on the border, adding that its army positions "came under fire, including from trench mortars".

The United States called for an end to the conflict Monday night, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying the US is "deeply concerned" over the situation.

"As we have long made clear, there can be no military solution to the conflict," Blinken said in a statement. "We urge an end to any military hostilities immediately."

Last week, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one of its soldiers in a border shootout.

In August, Azerbaijan said it had lost a soldier.

The neighbors fought two wars - in the 1990s and in 2020 - over...