ANKARA

Turkey's National Defense Ministry on Monday warned Armenia against playing with fire after an Azerbaijani soldier was martyred in a cross-border attack.

"Armenia, which unlawfully occupied Upper Karabakh, now violated the cease-fire in Tovuz region and killed a heroic Azerbaijani soldier," the ministry said on Twitter.

It also wished Allah's mercy upon the martyred soldier and conveyed condolences to the brotherly country of Azerbaijan.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry in a tweet also shared support for Azerbaijan.

Since 1991, the Armenian military has illegally occupied the Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh region, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions as well as decisions by many international organizations refer to this fact and demand the withdrawal of the occupational Armenian forces from Upper Karabakh and seven other occupied regions of Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by France, Russia and the US -- was formed to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but has yet to get any results.