At today’s government session, on 16 February, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan began with the topic of the Lachin corridor. He said that yesterday Azerbaijan had restored the supply of natural gas to Nagorno-Karabakh, but two hours later closed it again.
“As a result of the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor, a humanitarian crisis had begun in Nagorno-Karabakh; as a result of the energy blockade, the crisis is worsening; in parallel, an environmental crisis is unfolding, because the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is forced to use wood for its needs, for which forests are being cut down,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, the environmental justifications for the blockade of the Lachin corridor are fabricated, and Azerbaijan’s actions have one goal: to complete the policy of subjecting the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to ethnic cleansing.
“If until now the international community has been sceptical of this assertion of ours, now it is becoming more and more evident; it is no coincidence that the Lemkin International Institute has issued a statement three times in the last three months regarding the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor and the rhetoric of Azerbaijan’s leadership, and in its latest statement the Institute asks world leaders to take seriously the threat of genocide against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. This alarm must grow louder and louder every day around the world, and efforts in this direction must be continuous,” the Prime Minister stressed.
