Armenia's President Serzh Sargsian has told his foreign ministry to draft a treaty on mutual military assistance with Nagorno-Karabakh. 
A TASS news agency report today cited him as saying this at the country's National Security Council meeting that discussed the escalation of tensions in the region. 
"Armenia’s Foreign Ministry should cooperate with Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry and work out a treaty on mutual military assistance with Nagorno-Karabakh," Sargsian said, noting "the text of the treaty should be available, debates should be held and then it should be submitted to the National Assembly." "Armenia will meet its obligations in full to ensure security for Nagorno-Karabakh population," the head of state went on to say. "We have a legal right to act this way as we are one of the sides that signed the ceasefire agreement in 1994. 
"Apart from the Armed Forces, Armenia's other bodies are doing their work and foreign partners have been got in touch," Sargsian said. "We need to solve our tasks, but definitely should not underestimate anyone's help." The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh - Mountainous Karabakh - is a mostly Armenian-populated enclave inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It was the first zone of inter-ethnic tensions and violence to appear on the map of the former USSR. 
Almost a quarter of a century after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Karabakh remains a so-called 'frozen conflict' on the post-Soviet space, as the region is the subject of a dispute between Azerbaijan and the local Armenian population that draws on strong support from fellow-countrymen in neighbouring Armenia.