Russian President Vladimir Putin during a telephone call with
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for international cooperation to
put an end to fierce clashes over the disputed Nagorno- Karabakh region in
Azerbaijan, reported AFP quoting sources at the Kremlin.

The two world leaders, “stressed the urgent need
for joint efforts to end the bloodshed as soon as possible and move to a
peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,” according to
a Kremlin readout of the call.

The move is a first on the part of Turkey and Russia since
the fighting erupted between the two sides late last month.

New clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists over
the disputed region has already claimed hundreds of lives including those of
civilians, leaving an endless trail of devastation. Despite calls of peace from
Moscow the two warring nations spar over 
the contested location.

The former Soviet nations have locked horns in the
long-simmering deadlock over Karabakh which broke away from Azerbaijan
following a war in the 1990s.

The war of the 1990s had wreaked havoc in the region killing
at least 30,000 people. The new squabble is the worst since the 1994 ceasefire
and has awakened fears of a regional conflict, with Turkey expressing support
for Azerbaijan and Armenia seeking the support of ally Russia.

Turkey has been widely accused of sending pro-Ankara
fighters from Syria to the fight in Karabakh to bolster Azerbaijan’s troops.

 Putin
on Wednesday voiced “serious concern” over the role of militants from
the Middle East in the conflict.

Erdogan told Putin that “Turkey is in
favour of a permanent solution in Nagorno-Karabakh” and also accused
Armenia of “seeking to make its occupation (of Karabakh) permanent”.

Co-chaired by France, Russia and the United
States, the OSCE Minsk Group has worked to find a resolution to the
decades-long conflict and the Kremlin said Wednesday that Putin and Erdogan
hope Turkey will play a role towards de-escalation as a permanent member.

Ongoing
shelling by both sides has left a ceasefire agreed last week in Moscow hanging
in the balance, but “both sides confirmed the importance of observing the humanitarian truce,” the Kremlin said.