Azerbaijan’s claims do not sound credible to anyone, because the whole world knows that nothing happens in an authoritarian country “under the responsibility of environmentalist,” Artsakh’s Minister of State Ruben vardanyan said in an interview with Swedish National Radio.
“Can you remember how many environmental protests have taken place in Azerbaijan in the last 10 years?” he asked.
“We do not have mechanisms in Artsakh to put pressure on a country that has signed a document confirming the right to freely use the corridor, and violating it. We demand that the international community provide us with a humanitarian air corridor so that we can bring food and basic necessities. However, Azerbaijan does not allow this either. Therefore, we perceive this as a state policy, a state position that very clearly shows that they want to get us all out of here and carry out ethnic cleansing in order to get Artsakh without Armenians,” Vardanyan said.
Speaking to Byline Times, the State Minister presented the situation in Artsakh resulting from the blockade.
“Twenty-four days we are into this blockade,” he said. “We get a little bit of food from the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers. But in reality, we don’t have basic foodstuffs. No fruit, no vegetables. We have a little grain and meat and some milk. Other things do not exist anymore.” “No cigarettes,” he added meaningfully.
Vardanyan said he was among 5,000 natives of Artsakh who will be apart from their families this Christmas. “My wife and four kids planned our Christmas many months ago.”
Thanks to the Azerbaijan blockade they are stranded: “For the first time in my life I am apart from my family at Christmas. Basically, we are hostages to Azerbaijan while we can’t get access to the road.” He called on the international community to impose sanctions if Azerbaijan persisted with the blockade.
