Pashinyan presents information on Azerbaijan’s planned method of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno Karabakh

Politics

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, ARTSAKHPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan revealed his information about Azerbaijan’s plans concerning Lachin corridor.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, PM Pashinyan presented the situation in Nagorno Karabakh.

“For already a month, around 6000 children of pre-schools, around 19,000 students of public schools and around 6800 university students in Nagorno Karabakh are deprived of one of the most essential rights of the 21st century – the right to education, because for already a month the kindergartens, schools and universities in Nagorno Karabakh are closed. The last time this happened was during the 44-Day War, but in a situation when guns are silent the only time the educational facilities were closed was because of the coronavirus pandemic. This time, however, the reason of the non-functioning of the educational facilities isn’t COVID-19, but Azerbaijan’s ‘environmental’ concerns. Not satisfied with closing the Lachin corridor, Azerbaijan also closes the pipeline supplying gas to Nagorno Karabakh, then it opens it by 10%, then again shuts it down, then it reopens it 25%, and so on. Azerbaijan is continuously applying the gas pressure instrument, which is clearly condemnable.

The next reasons that the kindergartens are closed is the absence of the food for children, this is also related with the closure of the Lachin corridor. The road of life of Nagorno Karabakh, the Lachin corridor, defined under the 9 November 2020 statement, with Azerbaijan and Russia having given written guarantees of its uninterrupted functioning, is closed for already 46 days. And as I said, for already 46 days the normal life of Nagorno Karabakh is disrupted and a humanitarian crisis is ongoing in full-swing,” Pashinyan said.

He added that rolling blackouts are taking place in Nagorno Karabakh because Azerbaijan has also disrupted the power transmission lines.

“The population is receiving electricity supply only at the expense of domestic power production capacities, which are insufficient. The population is receiving essential supplies with coupons [ration stamps].”

The Armenian PM said that Azerbaijan pursues one goal – to break the Nagorno Karabakh Armenians’ will of living in their own homeland.

“Furthermore, we have information that Baku has the following plan: to reach some culminating point of the economic and psychological pressure in Nagorno Karabakh and open the Lachin corridor for a few days with the expectation that Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh will leave their homes en masse, then again close the corridor and then again reopen for a few days, and repeat this until the last Armenian leaves Nagorno Karabakh. This is certainly an explicit policy of ethnic cleansing,” the Armenian PM said.

Pashinyan said that if until now the international community had skepticism regarding Armenia’s warnings that Azerbaijan has intentions to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh, now this perception is slowly but resolutely getting stronger among the international community. Pashinyan said that the incident which happened on January 17, when the Azeri self-described masked eco-activists terrorized children (and filmed and published the footage themselves) who were being taken back home by Russian peacekeepers, also had a role in this sense.


ARTSAKHPRESS
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