The Turkish leader, according to Reuters, told Putin that "Armenia must be convinced to negotiate with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and called for a peaceful resolution."

"Erdogan told Putin that the Armenian forces must withdraw from Azerbaijani territories and the Armenian leadership must be persuaded to sit down at the negotiating table," according to a report released by the Turkish presidential administration.

Reuters reported that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had also made a phone call to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, citing the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

In another phone call earlier on Saturday, President Putin discussed the conflict with French President Emmanuel Macron in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Russian and French leaders allegedly expressed serious concern about the large-scale clashes in the region between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces and the involvement of Syrian and Libyan fighters in the conflict.

According to the Kremlin, Putin and Macron said that coordinated mediation efforts would continue, including through the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international format of mediation established in 1992 and jointly led by Russia, the United States, and France.

The diplomatic activity came in the midst of reports of continued heavy fighting in the conflict zone of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Azerbaijani forces were reportedly shutting down a strategic town in the heart of the region called Shushi (Shusha).

Late on Saturday, Armenian Defense Ministry representative Artsrun Hovhannisian confirmed that fierce battles were taking place in the vicinity of a town sitting on a mountain top about 10 kilometers south of Stepanakert, the capital of the region.