The enthusiasm Azerbaijanis display for the Turks appears mutual: hundreds have been driving around Istanbul in organised rallies and flying the two majority Muslim nations' flags since the latest occupied Karabakh hostilities resumed.
The international group is meant to be neutral, but it has been co-chaired by the US, Russia and France — the countries with large Armenian diasporas.
With both countries only a stone’s throw away from each other and holding considerable missile stocks, the risk of civilian deaths and urban devastation are higher than ever before.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar also demanded Armenia's retreat from the occupied Azerbaijani territories to achieve peace and stability in the region.
Iran seems to be quietly backing Armenia in the conflict.
Internally displaced Azerbaijanis, caught in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over occupied Karabakh, continue to live in shelters where they struggle to make ends meet.
Closer relations between Armenia and Turkey can only happen if it also includes Azerbaijan. Regional peace within a trilateral framework is possible if Armenia wants it.
Armenia occupied Karabakh after displacing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azerbaijanis following the countries' six-year war that ended in 1994.
Armenian forces killed a two-year-old Azerbaijani child and her grandmother in a fresh clash near the Nagorno-Karabakh region at the Azerbaijan-Armenia border.
Years of tension and sporadic violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia has displaced tens of thousands of people. Many hope to go home one day.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are once again clashing over the disputed region of Karabakh, as competing territorial claims and Russian intervention dim the prospect of peace.
UN Security Council Resolutions refer to Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan's territory. However clashes in the Upper Karabakh region have been ongoing for the last 25 years since the area was occupied by pro-Armenian militia.
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