PM Pashinyan tells citizens Armenia needs to be 'free of conflict'

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday said Armenia needed to be "free of conflict" for the sake of its independence, in an address to citizens on the national independence day.

Pashinyan made no direct reference to Nagorno-Karabakh, the breakaway ethnic Armenian-populated region inside Azerbaijan that Baku's forces seized control of on Wednesday after three decades of separatist rule.

The fall of the region has stoked calls in Armenia for Pashinyan's resignation.