PM Pashinyan Briefs Presidents Putin and Macron on Azerbaijan’s Attack on Sovereign Territory of Armenia

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan telephoned the presidents of Russia and France early on Tuesday shortly after the start of large-scale shelling of its territory by Azerbaijani forces.

An Armenian government statement said Pashinyan presented to Russian President Vladimir Putin details of Azerbaijan’s “aggressive and provocative” actions that began shortly after midnight.

“Nikol Pashinyan found the Azerbaijani side’s actions unacceptable and stressed the importance of adequate reaction from the international community,” said the statement. “The interlocutors agreed to be in operational contact.”

Putin and Pashinyan met last week on the sidelines of an economic forum held in the Russian city of Vladivostok. Speaking at the forum, the Armenian premier warned that Azerbaijan could provoke another escalation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone soon.

The two leaders held four phone calls last month. They spoke twice in the space of a week in early August amid an upsurge of violence in Karabakh.

The government’s press office released a similar readout of Pashinyan’s call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“President Macron found a further deepening of the tensions unacceptable and stressed the need to deescalate the situation,” it said.