Permanent Representative of Armenia to OSCE calls on international  community to curb Azerbaijan

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