The Artsakh Republic’s (Nagorno-Karabakh’s) president announced late on Monday that he is joining ongoing protests in Stepanakert against Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor in a bid to draw greater international attention to the worsening plight of the region’s ethnic Armenian population.
Arayik Harutiunian said that the Karabakh Armenians are not only struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and energy but also facing a “real threat of physical annihilation.” He said he expects Armenia, Russia, the United States and the European Union to back up their calls for the lifting of the blockade with concrete actions and to uphold Karabakh’s right to self-determination.
“If the plight of the people of Artsakh does not return within a week to a more or less stable and normal state with international intervention, then we will resort to tougher actions both in Artsakh and outside of it,” he warned before joining a nonstop sit-in staged in Stepanakert’s central square.
Thousands of people rallied there on Friday at the start of the daily protests organized by Karabakh’s leadership. They marched to the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to demand that it unblock Karabakh’s only land link with Armenia and the outside world.
Azerbaijan further tightened the blockade on June 15, banning all relief supplies to Karabakh carried out by the peacekeepers as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross. This only aggravated the shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other essential items experienced by the local population.
The Russian Foreign Ministry “strongly” urged the Azerbaijani side on Saturday to lift the blockade and unblock Armenia’s supplies of electricity and natural gas to Karabakh. Baku rejected the call and criticized Moscow in unusually strong terms.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko deplored Baku’s “incorrect” reaction during a meeting with the Azerbaijani ambassador in Moscow on Monday. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rudenko insisted on “the need for complete and immediate unblocking of the Lachin corridor” and Baku’s compliance with relevant provisions of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire.
The U.S. and the EU likewise renewed last week their calls for the resumption of traffic through the corridor. The issue was on the agenda of Saturday’s talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders hosted by the EU head, Charles Michel, in Brussels. Still, an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty was apparently the main focus of the summit.
Rudenko reiterated a Russian proposal to organized more talks on the treaty which Moscow says must put in place security guarantees for Karabakh’s population.
Source: Azatutyun.am
