BAKU (Combined Sources)-A military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is inevitable if a peaceful settlement cannot be reached, Azerbaijan's Defense Minister said Monday, threatened Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with renewed war, news.az reported.

"Solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict militarily is inevitable if it is not settled peacefully," Safar Abiyev told reporters at a press conference.

"Solving the conflict militarily is always real. All must know it," he said, adding that "everything depends on the negotiations process."

Abiyev's warning comes amid heightened tension in the region as Azerbaijan continues to threaten war with Armenia unless the resolution of the Karabakh conflict is reached before fence-mending protocols between Armenia and Turkey are completed.

The two protocols signed in Zurich in October commit the two neighbors to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border within two months of the documents' entry into force, which in turn is contingent on their ratification by the Armenian and Turkish parliaments.

Although the protocols make no direct reference to Karabakh, Turkish leaders have made clear that Turkey's Grand National Assembly will not endorse them unless Armenia agrees to a resolution of the Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has a clear majority in the assembly, reiterated that precondition after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House on December 7.

To strengthen that position, Azerbaijan has stepped up its military rhetoric in recent months, warning to resolve its nearly two-decade long conflict with Armenia and Karabakh by force if internationally mediated peace talks do not yield a resolution it favors.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan recently met in Athens for their sixth summit this year to discuss the remaining points of contention in a framework peace accord drafted by the OSCE Minsk Group.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian threatened late last week to annul the ratification-pending agreements with Turkey unless Ankara drops its preconditions on Karabakh.

The Sarkisian administration has also been on the defensive over a key protocol clause that envisages the formation of a Turkish-Armenian panel of historians that would look into the 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide. Ankara has made no secret that it will exploit the existence of the body to deter more countries from recognizing the Genocide.