TALLINN, September 27. /TASS/. Tallinn will initiate United Nations Security Council consultations on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said on Sunday.

"As a member of the United Nation Security Council, Estonia will initiate consultations to discuss the developments in Nagorno-Karabakh," the Estonian foreign ministry’s press service quoted him as saying.

Estonia is a non-permanent member of the Un Security Council in 2020-201.

"I call on the parties to immediately stop hostilities and take all possible measures to avoid further escalation of the situation," the minister stressed. "The use of violence to settle difference deserves condemnation. It is important that the parties immediately stop hostilities and begin peaceful settlement of differences."

He also said he plans to contact the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers. "The situation is extremely serious as it is fraught with dramatic consequences for peace and security in the entire region," he added.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, when Azerbaijan said its positions had come under extensive fire from Armenia. Armenia, in turn, said the Azerbaijani army had staged ab offensive in the direction of Nagorno-Karabakh. It said a number of settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh, including its administrative center Stepanakert, had come under shelling by Azerbaijan. Both sides report casualties, including among civilians. Armenia’s authorities have imposed martial law and announced mobilization of reservists. Azerbaijan also imposed martial law on the entire territory of the country.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.