MOSCOW -- Russia voiced concern Tuesday that the conflict in Azerbaijan could engulf neighboring countries, which have massed forces near their borders, and Moscow warned Tehran about Iranian troop movements.
'Such actions of the Iranian side, regardless of their motives, cannot get our support,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin said. 'Introduction of Iranian troops may cause an expanded conflict. We call for Iranian restraint.'
Karasin told a news conference that Moscow was in constant contact with Tehran over the tense situation in southern Azerbaijan, where Armenian irregulars have been waging an offensive and seizing territory almost up to the Iranian border, alarming neighboring Iran and Turkey.
The conflict, while territorial and not religious, pits Christian Armenians against Moslem Azeris, who are supported by both Iran and by Turkey, Armenia's historical foe.
The events in southern Azerbaijan have caused a flurry of worried diplomatc activity.
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller was due to hold talks Wednesday in the Kremlin, and Karasin said a hotline would be established between Moscow and Ankara, but he sidestepped a question over whether this was prompted by the tension on the borders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iran.
Turkish President Suleiman Demirel and Armenian President Levon Ter- Petrosian discussed the situation by telephone in an attempt to defuse the crisis, the news agency Noyan Tapan reported from the Armenian capital Yerevan.
Iranian Foreign Ministry and Armenian Foreign Ministry officials were holding talks Tuesday in Yerevan.
Representatives from the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe are to hold a three-day meeting on the conflict starting Thursday in Moscow.
Azerbaijani leader Heidar Aliyev has been spending the week in Moscow for extended top-level talks with Russian officials, who are as closer to the Armenian side and better able to exert pressure on them.
Aliyev was to meet Wednesday with leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, the breakaway province at the root of the conflict.
Karabakh Armenians have been fighting to make their province independent of Azerbaijan, but battles have spilled out of the enclave into surrounding Azerbaijani territory, and Armenian units have been pushing south toward Iran.
There have been persistent but unconfirmed reports of Iranians crossing into Azerbaijan. Even Aliyev acknowledged that 'volunteers' from Iran could slip across the frontier, especially since Iran has stepped forward to offer assistance to refugees fleeing the fighting toward the Iran. Iranalso is concerned about a large dam and reservoir on the border.
In sounding a warning to Tehran before reporters, Karasin refused to say whether Russia had any evidence of Iranians crossing into Azerbaijan. He did say that Russia understood Tehran's anxiety over the Armenian military push in Azerbaijan toward Iran. He voiced opposition to both the Armenian actions and any military reaction by Iranian forces.
Karasin said Russia had growing concerns that the undeclared war now raging entirely inside Azerbaijan could become an international conflict.
