ArmInfo.Permanent Representative of Armenia to the OSCE Armen Papikyan told the participants of the regular meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization about the difficult humanitarian situation caused by the deliberate blocking of the road passing through the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor by Azerbaijan since December 12 and the disruption of the supply of natural gas from Armenia to Artsakh for several days.
According to the press service of the permanent mission, Papikyan noted that the provocative actions of Azerbaijan demonstrate the real intention of the authorities of this country to continue the policy of ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the rejection of a dialogue with Stepanakert aimed at ensuring the security and rights of the people of Artsakh.
Armen Papikyan stressed the need for Azerbaijan to strictly fulfill its international obligations, including the obligations assumed by the Trilateral Declaration of November 9, 2020; renunciation of the use of force or threat of force; full compliance with the ceasefire regime; guarantee of uninterrupted traffic in the Lachin corridor under the control of Russian peacekeeping force.
The head of the RA mission stressed that the ongoing violations of the ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, the militant rhetoric and maximalist approaches of the Azerbaijani authorities seriously undermine the process of normalizing relations between the two countries and a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, thereby jeopardizing prospects for achieving stability and peace in the South Caucasus region.
The Ambassador called on the OSCE and participating States to unequivocally condemn and take decisive steps to curb Azerbaijan's deliberate policy, which could lead to a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe. He stressed that issues related to the rights and security of the people of Artsakh should be resolved comprehensively within the framework of international mechanisms, with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, aimed at a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
On December 12 at 10:30 am, a group of Azerbaijanis in civilian clothes blocked the Stepanakert-Goris highway, again "for environmental reasons." Armenian telegram channels have already identified employees of the special services of Azerbaijan among the so-called ecologists. The Azerbaijanis are behaving loosely, trying to provoke Russian peacekeepers, and have set up a tent on the only road linking Artsakh with Armenia. The road remains closed to this day. The so-called Azerbaijani environmentalists, who were lit up in the photo with a demonstration of the symbol of Turkish "Gray Wolves" ultranationalists, said that they would remain on the road until the head of the peacekeeping contingent, Andrei Volkov, arrived. In addition, from the evening of December 13, Azerbaijan also shut off the valve of the gas pipeline through which gas is supplied to the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. The gas supply was restored three days later.
It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijanis who blocked the Stepanakert-Goris highway changed their demands, and now they demand the control and activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service of Azerbaijan throughout the territory of the Republic of Artsakh.
We add that the first provocations by the so-called environmentalists began on December 3 with the blocking of the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor connecting Artsakh with Armenia. Over the past week, the enemy side periodically undertook various kinds of provocations both against the Russian peacekeepers in the NKR and against the civilian population. And already on December 10, a group of Azerbaijanis tried to get into two mines operating in the NKR, however, the Karabakh people did not allow them to get into the mines