Crisis in Artsakh caused by Azerbaijani blockade continues - State  Minister

ArmInfo.The crisis in Artsakh, caused by the blockade by Azerbaijan, continues. State  Minister of Artsakh Republic Ruben Vardanyan announced this on  December 20 in an address from his Facebook page.

According to him, recently there have been reports from various  places about the unblocking of the Stepanakert-Goris road, which is  not true. Azerbaijanis, the state minister continued, continue to  stay on the road, blocking the transport links between Artsakh and  Armenia. Vardanyan stressed that the so-called environmental  activists should leave the road and not interfere with the movement  of vehicles. <It is unacceptable when Azerbaijanis standing on the  road can stop cars whenever they want. They must leave, this is the  only acceptable solution, because if the current situation continues,  it will be necessary to establish a checkpoint>, the state minister  said.

He also presented the results of his meetings in various regions of  Artsakh. <These meetings show your readiness, energy and demand for  justice. I'm glad we think alike. In this situation, we must have  clear security guarantees. We still have a lot to do>, Ruben  Vardanyan said.

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.