YEREVAN, September 27. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed the current escalation of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh with French President Emmanuel Macron and pointed to Turkey’s aggressive and destructive role, the press service of the Armenian government said on Sunday after their telephone conversation.

"The prime minister drew his interlocutor’s attention to Turkey’s aggressively biased position and said that it is necessary to prevent this country’s possible interference," it said.

"President Macron expressed profound concern over the current situation and said that further escalation of tension is inadmissible," the press service reported. "France calls for immediate measures to stop hostilities and ease tension. Macron stressed the necessity to invigorate the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ efforts to restore peace in the region."

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.