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Armenian PM says Nagorno-Karabakh conflict spills over regional borders

According to the Armenian prime minister, since in the conflict "there are radicals and international terrorists, it poses a threat to all nations of a big region"

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. The conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has expanded beyond regional boundaries, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday.

"The situation has spilled over the regional borders. I mean the region of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh," Pashinyan said in a televised interview on Russia’s Channel One.

According to the Armenian prime minister, since in the conflict "there are radicals and international terrorists, it poses a threat to all nations of a big region."

"And that is a hotbed for global security," Pashinyan added stating that Turkey’s involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was altering the context of the events.

"Turkey’s involvement changes the context," Pashinyan said emphasizing, "Turkey has come back to the South Caucasus for two reasons - to continue their policy of Armenians’ genocide and their imperial policy towards the northeast."

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.

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.