World Bulletin / News Desk

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev ahead of talks to resolve the latest outbreak of fighting on Azerbaijan’s border with the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Kremlin press office said.

Putin also met Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan separately in Sochi on Saturday and the three leaders will meet for tripartite talks later.

Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics, fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh between 1988 and 1994.

Since then there have been sporadic outbreaks of violence along the border between Azerbaijan and the Armenian-majority enclave but the fighting has intensified since the beginning of August, with a growing number of casualties.

The last key agreement on a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was signed in Moscow in 2008.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire in 1994 but never agreed a peace settlement and Nagorno-Karabakh is still unrecognized. The two countries have no diplomatic relations.

Wounded Azeri troops treated in Turkey

Three seriously wounded Azeri soldiers have been transferred to Turkey for medical treatment, the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency has reported.

The troops were injured in intense clashes between Azeri and Armenian forces over the disputed border between the two countries. In the fiercest fighting since violence broke out on August 1, 13 Azeri soldiers were killed and scores injured.

The agency, known by the acronym TIKA, flew the soldiers into Turkey for urgent medical care. Baku coordinator Mustafa Hasim Polat said the evacuation demonstrated Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan.

Azeri lawmaker Melahat Hasanova said the gesture was a “symbol of union and brotherhood."

After a six-year war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the two former Soviet republics reached a ceasefire in 1994. The truce has been disrupted by sporadic cross-border incidents but the clashes of the past week have seen the greatest number of casualties in 20 years.