Ombudsman of Artsakh: Through its illegal actions, Azerbaijan is trying to suspend activities of ICRC Office in Stepanakert

ArmInfo. This morning, at the  illegally installed checkpoint over the Hakari Bridge in the Lachin  corridor, the Azerbaijani side again blocked the entry of the  vehicles transporting patients and their accompanying people to  Artsakh, as well as the already limited amount of medicines  transported from Armenia to Artsakh by the International Committee of  the Red Cross (ICRC). This time Azerbaijan used the false pretext of  "smuggling". This is stated in the statement of the Human Rights  Defender of the Republic of Artsakh.

As the Ombudsman noted: " Cars belonging to the ICRC are hardly being  searched in any part of the world as thoroughly as they are done at  the illegally installed checkpoint of Azerbaijan, which aims to  deliberately obstruct the mission of the only international  humanitarian organisation in Artsakh.

Azerbaijan clearly ignores the special status of the ICRC defined by  international law, which envisages the inviolability of ICRC  personnel, vehicles and cargo.

This is not the first case when Azerbaijan deliberately creates  obstacles for the activities of the ICRC in Artsakh. Thus, earlier,  the Azerbaijani side demanded to check the passports and vehicles of  the ICRC drivers, as well as of the transported patients at the  illegally installed site. Since June 15, due to the obstacles that  had arisen, the bilateral transportation of patients and their  accompanying persons to Artsakh by the ICRC was completely suspended  for 10 days in a row.

By undermining the activities of the ICRC, the Azerbaijani side once  again proves that humanitarian issues and the humanitarian crisis in  Artsakh are used as a leverage to put pressure on the peaceful  population of Artsakh and create unbearable living conditions for them.

Recently, the Azerbaijani state propaganda machine has been actively  promoting the illegal demand to either suspend the ICRC Office in  Nagorno-Karabakh or subordinate it to the ICRC office in Baku,  constantly looking for a reason to justify and implement its goal.  And today's incident is part of the chain of actions aimed at  implementing this vile policy of Azerbaijan."

Earlier Azerbaijan accused the ICRC of allegedly smuggling goods to  Artsakh, and under this pretext completely blocked the corridor,  which had not been operating for more than six months. We add that  the ICRC admitted that four hired drivers, without the knowledge of  the Organization, were carrying some goods (cigarettes, telephones,  etc.), and the contract with them was immediately terminated. Thus,  Azerbaijan is trying to strangle the people of Artsakh, which has  been in a total blockade since December 12 of this year, deprived of  gas, electricity and basic necessities. All this is happening against  the backdrop of the inaction of the civilized international  community, which, in pursuit of energy resources, forgot about the  universal human rights promoted by itself.