Energy crisis aggravating humanitarian crisis in Artsakh – Pashinyan
YEREVAN, February 16. /ARKA/. The humanitarian crisis in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) has deteriorated further because of the energy blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a government meeting today.
During the more than 2-month blockade of Artsakh, Azerbaijan cut off natural gas supplies to Artsakh through a pipeline running from Armenia on December 13, 2022 for three days, on 17 January 2023 for a day, on 18 January for a day, on January 21 for four days, on January 28 for a day and on February 10. On January 9, 2023 Azerbaijan cut off electricity supplies from Armenia.
Because of the energy blockade the humanitarian crisis has become even more acute and is accompanied by environmental crisis, because the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh are forced to use wood for heating and other household needs, Pashinyan said.
'This is proof that the "environmental reasons" for the blockade cited by Azerbaijan are far-fetched, and Azerbaijan's actions have only one goal: to bring the policy of ethnic cleansing of Artsakh to completion,' Pashinyan said.
"If the international community has so far treated our calls with disbelief, now they are becoming more and more evident," he said, pointing to statements by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention that warned of the threat of the Armenian genocide in Artsakh.
On December 12, Azerbaijan effectively cut off access to Nagorno-Karabakh, letting a group of self-described Azerbaijani “eco-activists” with no history of environmental advocacy barge through Russian peacekeepers to block the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Local authorities had to close schools and put 120,000 inhabitants on ration cards as Azerbaijan continues to disrupt gas and electricity supplies amid sub-zero temperatures.
Armenia’s leaders accuse Azerbaijan of seeking to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh by starving the local ethnic Armenian population and forcing it to leave.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in a January 10 TV interview: 'For those (of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians) who does not want to become Azerbaijani citizen, the road is not closed. They can leave. They can go on their own, or they can ride with Russian peacekeepers, or they can go by bus. The road to Armenia is open.” -0-
