Accepting Azerbaijan’s demands would further deepen and complicate the situation, warns senior Nagorno-Karabakh official

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. Yielding to Azerbaijan’s terms would further deepen and complicate the situation, Nagorno-Karabakh’s State Minister Gurgen Nersisyan warned Friday.

“The people of Artsakh have been facing a new challenge since 12 December 2022. Artsakh was first blockaded under a false environmental pretext, then the corridor link with Armenia was blockaded, and then the Hakari Bridge was closed. A device was installed there under the pretext of arms shipments from Armenia, then it was removed and a checkpoint was installed instead. Humanitarian shipments have been suspended since June 15, instead of free movement of persons we only have transfer of patients through the Red Cross, while the shipment of goods has been completely halted. After keeping the people of Artsakh in this condition for over two months, Azerbaijan presented new demands, the launch of the Aghdam-Askeran road and a meeting with representatives of ethnic Armenians in Karabakh on Azerbaijani territory. There will be endless demands like this as long as the Azerbaijani plan to subject the people of Artsakh to genocide, to give a final solution to the Karabakh conflict by way of depopulating Artsakh isn’t completed. Therefore, the claims that making concessions in response to Azerbaijan’s demands would allow us to recover are baseless illusions. Furthermore, it would only further deepen and complicate our situation,” Nersisyan said in a video address.

Nersisyan said that they must accept the reality that the international community, including the peacekeeping forces in Artsakh, are ensuring insufficient security in Artsakh and are unable to create the conditions necessary for the most basic livelihood, and are tacitly defending or encouraging the Azeri agenda which intends to eventually lead to genocide.