ANKARA, September 30. /TASS/. Turkey is ready to provide any kind of support to Azerbaijan in the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Anadolu news agency on Wednesday.

"Whichever help is needed by Azerbaijan, we are ready [to provide it]. We said that we are together with Azerbaijan both at the negotiation table and on the battlefield. Those are not empty words," he said.

The top diplomat stated that "the UN earlier adopted a number of resolutions [on the Karabakh issue] but Armenia ignores international law stating that it doesn’t want to resolve the issue the diplomatic way." Additionally, according to the minister, Azerbaijan "is fighting on its own land, combatting the occupants."

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh aggravated on September 27, with active armed clashes being underway. Martial law has been declared in Azerbaijan and Armenia. The authorities of both republics announced mobilization. Both parties reported a growing number of casualties, including among civilians. Baku stated it had taken several settlements and strategic heights in Karabakh under control. Yerevan reported strikes on Armenian territory itself.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.