Pashinyan says July 15 meeting with Aliyev was 'frustrating'
YEREVAN, July 20. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today his July 15 meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels, mediated by the European Council's President Charles Michel was 'frustrating'
He said the meeting, held against the backdrop of the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor and the aggravating humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh did not yield any concrete result in terms of overcoming the blockade of the Lachin corridor and the humanitarian crisis.
Speaking at a government session on Thursday, Pashinyan said from the political point of view it is important that the President of the European Council in his statement after the meeting emphasized the need to open the Lachin corridor, as well as the need to redirect the issue of rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh population to Stepanakert-Baku dialogue.
"Our conviction is that without international engagement and mechanisms that dialog cannot be effective, at least for the reason that Baku continues its aggressive and threatening rhetoric, the underlying purpose of which, in our assessment, is to carry out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh,' Pashinyan added.
He said as a result of this there is complete absence of food, gas and electricity supplies in Nagorno-Karabakh. The purpose, he said, is to make the life of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh impossible.
At the same time, Pashinyan noted that the legally binding decisions of the UN International Court of Justice, which obliged Azerbaijan to open the Lachin corridor, have not yet been implemented.
"We must continue our efforts in this direction, it is necessary to continue work on the widest possible coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh in the international press," he said.
The humanitarian situation is catastrophic - stores and food stalls are empty, the complete lack of food and basic necessities is causing suffering to 120,000 people, including 30,000 children. The blockade of Artsakh has been going on for 220 days, and for the last 35 days it has been under complete siege without any humanitarian supplies. -0-
