There is hope that Lachin Corridor could be opened – Nagorno Karabakh official

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The Lachin Corridor remains fully closed, there is no change but there is some positive trend from the negotiations process, according to Artak Beglaryan, the Advisor to the State Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).

Beglaryan is holding a sit-in outside the UN Armenia office in Yerevan since December 14.

“There is hope that it could be opened, but we can’t say what will happen, we don’t have any grounds to trust the Azerbaijani side. The gas supply was restored without any concessions, simply as a result of international pressure. The blockade and gas supply cut-off of Artsakh caused rather significant international resonance. The Russian side is working in this direction, international organizations including the UN are working. The UN Secretary General’s statement was also a measure of pressure. The US, France and EU made statements, I am also aware that there is internal pressure. There is also a decision from the ECHR that gave Azerbaijan until Monday to inform about its actions in direction of eliminating these violations of human rights. This is one of the types of pressure,” Beglaryan said.

He called for long-term guarantees to prevent such incidents for the security of the Armenians of Artsakh.

“It must be clear that from now on Azerbaijan will pay a high cost for committing such terrorist genocidal acts, and that cost must be in the form of punishment. It is important for the UN Security Council to assume a clear commitment by providing a mandate on what guarantees exist for security. It could be Russian peacekeepers or multinational peacekeepers. What matters is the mandate issued by the UNSC and it is important that the UN specialized agencies open permanent representations in Artsakh. It could be UNESCO, rapid reaction groups, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The EU, France, US can be actors, it is important for us for there to be consensus in the issue of guaranteeing the security and rights of the people of Artsakh. Also for there to be an internationally guaranteed long-term process in direction of conflict settlement and the recognition of Artsakh,” Beglaryan said.

Asked what response the UNSC member-country embassies gave to their letters and requests, Beglaryan said they haven’t received any response. “We didn’t have much hope that there would be any response,” he said.