Turkish F-16s in Azerbaijan, 2 October 2020 (satellite photo published by the New York Times)

Speaking to CNN on 8 October 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev acknowledged that Turkish F-16s had been stationed at the Ganja airbase, according to him since the joint Azeri-Turkish military exercises. He denied that the planes were involved in the fighting and that they had shot down an Armenian Sukhoi-25 on September 29.

Western countries started urging Turkey “to keep out of the conflict in Azerbaijan” … “a situation which is already complicated enough”.

Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne on 9 October 2020 rang up his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, to strongly request him to “stay away” from this war; an untenable proposition for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for whom the recapture of Karabakh by the “brotherly country of Azerbaijan is “a matter of honour”.

After six hours of negotiations in Moscow between Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bairamovet and his Armenian counterpart, Zograb Mnatsakanyan, a “substantial agreement” was signed [1]. It provides for a ceasefire beginning on October 10 at 12 noon followed by an exchange of prisoners and the return of the bodies of the victims under the auspices of the International Red Cross. Peace negotiations are expected to take place in the presence of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The unrecognized government of Artsakh did in fact order its army, on the recommendation of the Armenian state, to respect this ceasefire. However at 12:05 p.m. Azerbaijan again attacked Karabakh.

According to the Armenian state, this attack has extended into Armenian territory. The town of Kapan was reportedly bombed, which Azerbaijan denies.