Author: Mihran Shahzadeyan
Ph.D., Political Scientist
On 20.12.2022 the UN Security Council considered the issue of Azerbaijan's blockade of the Lachin humanitarian corridor. On December 11 a group of Azerbaijanis calling themselves "environmentalists" blocked the highway which deprived the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh of communication with Armenia and the outside world. It was noted that transport links between several villages and Stepanakert were also interrupted, and gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh was stopped for several days.
In the statements of the authorities of the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in numerous publications of various mass media, facts are given that the closure of the Lachin corridor is the result of a well-planned action by the Azerbaijani authorities to create a large-scale humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Among these so-called "environmental paratroopers" were many employees of pro-government organizations and representatives of special forces, police, military, Azerbaijani special services.
As a result of the blockade in the cold winter, about 1,100 armenian civilians including women, the elderly and 270 children, are in the Lachin corridor unable to return to their homes and to their families. Classes in many schools were suspended due to the termination of the gas supply heating of residential buildings was stopped. The work of medical and other vital institutions heated by gas has been disrupted. It has become impossible to transport patients in critical condition for urgent treatment and hospitalization to the republican medical centers of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which fatal cases occur.
At a meeting of the Security Council the Assistant Secretary General for Europe, Central Asia and America MIROSLAV JENCA noted that tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and around the areas under the control of the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation have not eased and since December 12 reports have been received about the closure of the Lachin corridor, a vital artery for people in this area.
The positions of their countries were presented by the representatives of the USA, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, India, the representatives of a number of European, Latin American and African countries. All of them stated that the blockade of the Lachin humanitarian corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with the outside world, is unacceptable, fraught with serious humanitarian consequences and called on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately remove all obstacles and ensure freedom and safety of movement along the corridor in accordance with the commitments undertaken in the trilateral ceasefire statement of November 9, 2020.
Having considered the main theses of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan on the materials of the UN Security Council on the Lachin corridor, we can come to the following conclusions. Firstly, Azerbaijan believes that the members of the UN Security Council, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, India and others, are engaged in disinformation and spreading false opinions about the blocking of the Lachin corridor. Secondly, there is no Nagorno-Karabakh and the members of the Security Council have no right to talk about it or even use this name. There is a certain territory inhabited by Armenians, and the UN Security Council has no right to tell Azerbaijan what it should do in relation to this territory. And he will "respect the rights" of the people living there the way he wants. And if someone thinks that blocking the only way for these people to communicate with the outside world is a humanitarian crisis and tries to help solve it, it will be an impermissible interference in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. It is hard to imagine a ruder insult for the UN Security Council and its members. This is what Azerbaijan did.
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