Hosting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Baku,
Aliyev said Pashinyan's request was an "admission of defeat" and that
the treaty did not apply because Karabakh is internationally recognised as part
of Azerbaijan
BAKU, NOV 2 -
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said on Sunday there was no reason for Russia
to intervene in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh because Baku is not
threatening Armenian territory.
Fighting has been raging over Karabakh -- an ethnic Armenian
region of Azerbaijan -- for more than a month and on Saturday Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinyan asked Moscow for "urgent consultations" on how Russia
could come to its aid under a defence treaty.
Hosting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Baku,
Aliyev said Pashinyan's request was an "admission of defeat" and that
the treaty did not apply because Karabakh is internationally recognised as part
of Azerbaijan.
"Azerbaijan is conducting military operations on its
territory and has no military plans for the territory of Armenia,"
Aliyev's office quoted him as saying.
Hundreds of people have been killed since new fighting
erupted on September 27 over Karabakh, which broke from Azerbaijan's control
during a war in the 1990s.
International attempts to secure a ceasefire have repeatedly
failed.
Aliyev said his country would agree to a truce only if
Armenian separatists stopped trying to win back territory recently retaken by
Azerbaijani forces.
"This is the main reason for continued fighting,"
he said.
Cavusoglu re-asserted Ankara's support for Azerbaijan and
said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had told him it was
"unacceptable" to leave Azerbaijan without assistance.
Fighting continued overnight and Sunday morning, the warring
sides said.
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