FEBRUARY 1, ARTSAKHPRESS.€¤ The prestigious Canadian periodical The Hill Times published an extensive article about the reasons behind the blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan and the situation created in Artsakh as a result.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the office of the Minister of State of Artsakh, presenting the inhumane conditions created in Artsakh as a result of the blockade, the periodical writes that on January 25, the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations and International Development of the Canadian House of Commons convened two sessions to consider the topic of the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, in the framework of which professor at the University of Windsor Christopher Waters characterized the blocking of humanitarian aid to Artsakh as “de facto ethnic cleansing”. The article also quotes committee members Heather McPherson and Jean-Pierre Godbout as saying that Canada should use its diplomatic channels at the UN to pressure Azerbaijan to open the Lachine Corridor.
According to the source, in the conversation with the periodical, Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan also called on Canada and the international community to put pressure on Azerbaijan and impose sanctions on the Azerbaijani government to open the Lachin Corridor. Ruben Vardanyan called for a “humanitarian air corridor” to provide supplies to Artsakh.
The Minister of State of Artsakh denied the data presented by Azerbaijan about traffic through the Lachin Corridor, noting that since December 12, only a few hundred trucks belonging to Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross have passed through the Lachin Corridor. “For comparison, I should note that before the blockade, 800 to 1,000 trucks entered Artsakh per day,” said Vardanyan, emphasizing that regular supplies of medicine, food, fuel and electricity ware suspended as a result of the blockade.
“Our entire economy is shut down because we cannot bring any commercial vehicles, we cannot bring any resources or any materials for production or export any commodities that are produced here,” Vardanyan explained, adding that due to the shortages of fuel and electricity, schools have also been forced to close.
Vardanyan is calling on Canada and the international community to pressure Azerbaijan to reopen the corridor. In the meantime, he called for the creation of an “air corridor” to fly in supplies to the region, and for sanctions on the government of Azerbaijan.
“It is unacceptable in a winter to put 30,000 kids in a situation where they have no food, no education, and no electricity or gas,” Vardanyan added. “[Azerbaijan] needs to accept that there needs to be dialogue … this cannot be solved with a military solution or by squeezing 120,000 people from their own homeland in an ethnic cleansing.”
