BAKU, October 6. /TASS/. Turkey is ready to provide any support to Azerbaijan in any sphere should Baku require it, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday at a meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Baku.

"Today, the Azeri people are fighting to free their lands and is capable of it, it has the power and potential to do it. Of course, Turkey and the Turkish nation are ready to provide any help in any sphere to Azerbaijan if it needs any," the Turkish minister said.

Cavusoglu underlined that he had arrived in Baku "to again show Turkey and the Turkish people’s support for Azerbaijan."

In turn, Aliyev pointed out that Ankara’s support gives Baku strength. "It inspires us, gives us additional strength and, at the same time, plays an important role in maintaining stability and peace in the region," he said. According to him, "decisive statements" of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "showed the whole world that Azerbaijan is not alone."

On September 27, Baku said that Armenia had shelled the Azerbaijani army’s positions and Yerevan, in turn, claimed that Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces had launched an offensive towards Nagorno-Karabakh, shelling regional settlements, including the capital, Stepanakert. Both parties reported casualties, including civilian casualties. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have declared martial law and a troop mobilization.

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.