YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s prime minister says he has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for military assistance amid simmering tensions with Azerbaijan in the wake of an armed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The tug-of-war between the two South Caucasus neighbors exacerbated this week when Armenia protested what it described as Azerbaijani troops’ incursion into its lands. Azerbaijan has insisted that its soldiers were deployed to what it considers its territory in areas where the border is yet to be demarcated. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers Friday that he has asked Putin to provide military assistance to Armenia. Russia hasn’t made any immediate comment on Pashinyan’s statement, and the Kremlin didn’t mention the Armenian leader’s request in its readout of the call.
