YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commented on the Azerbaijani military invasion into the village of Parukh in Artsakh and the developments that preceded it, emphasizing that these actions are the most recent evidence of Azerbaijan’s racist policy.

“First, Azerbaijan blew up the only pipeline supplying gas to Nagorno Karabakh, at a time when unprecedented low temperatures were recorded in Nagorno Karabakh. It took 11 days for the pipeline to be restored, but it turned out that during the repair Azerbaijan had installed a valve on the pipeline and this valve was shut the day when unprecedented snowfalls took place in Karabakh, up to 1 meters, and the temperature dropped minus 8 degrees Celsius. This anti-Armenian campaign was essentially the continuation of the Azerbaijani actions on using loudspeakers in Armenian and Russian languages to demand the residents of several villages of Karabakh to abandon the villages or else be taken out by force. These statements were coupled with nighttime illumination of the village homes and playing of azan, the Muslim call for prayer. This is none other than a manifestation of religious terror and on the other hand the defamation of Islam.

But this invasion into the village of Parukh, which is in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagoprno Karabakh, showed that Azerbaijan doesn’t plan to limit itself with psychological terror and that the exodus of Armenians of Artsakh through armed terrorism is its main and key objective,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said that this brings many questions regarding the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s activities in Nagorno Karabakh. “But now we find it important for the Russian peacekeeping contingent to take measures to withdraw the Azerbaijani military units from its area of responsibility. This is an absolute necessity and a very serious trial for the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh.”