MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the settlement of the Azeri-Armenian conflict around Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region with his Azeri counterpart in a phone call on Friday, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan, is run by ethnic Armenians who declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991.

Neighboring Armenia, a close ally of Russia, faces a crisis after two weeks of protests against the ruling elite led to the resignation of Serzh Sarksyan as prime minister on Monday.