Turkey backs Azerbaijan in conflict with Armenia

Turkey backs Azerbaijan in the heated conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, where a cease-fire has been reached after four days of clashes, with Turkish president and prime minister expressing their vociferous support for Baku.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu echoed President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an in displaying solidarity with Azerbaijan over Karabakh, pledging to stand by Baku "until doomsday."

"I express my condolences to all Azeris ... over the deaths of Azeri citizens resulting from Armenian attacks," Davuto?lu said April 5, noting that he had called Azerbaijani President ?lham Aliyev. 

Azerbaijan said 16 Azeri servicemen had been killed in fighting around the Armenian-backed region in two days, as the decades-old conflict flared-up.

"The whole world needs to know that Turkey will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Azerbaijan against Armenia's aggression and occupation until doomsday," Davuto?lu promised while addressing a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war over the mountainous territory, whose population are mostly ethnic Armenian, in the early 1990s in which thousands were killed on both sides, and hundreds of thousands displaced. 

The region was seized by Armenian rebels from Azerbaijan in a war that ended with an inconclusive truce in 1994. The territory is now ruled by Armenia-backed separatist authorities who claim independence and are backed by Yerevan but are not recognized by any state.

"Each martyr that dear Azerbaijan has lost is our beloved one and our heart," Davuto?lu said. "We, as 78 million [people of Turkey], will continue standing by Azerbaijan until all territories of Azerbaijan which are under...