“Following the first disruption of the supply on March 8 the EU encouraged Azerbaijan’s active engagement on the matter, which led to repair works and the resumption of the gas supply on March 19.
“There is an urgent need to ensure the immediate resumption of the gas supply to the affected local population, in particular in the context of the dire weather conditions, and the EU calls on the authorities in control to allow this to happen,” Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for the EU’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The European Union is closely following this and other developments in the region and will continue its engagement towards sustainable peace and stability for the South Caucasus,” he added.
On Tuesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry accused Azerbaijan of deliberately disrupting the normal operation of the gas pipeline passing through the territory controlled by its military forces. “We consider this outrageous policy of systematic violence against Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to be unacceptable,” it said.
The statement followed reports by de-facto Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh that natural gas supplies to the region had been cut by Baku, which created humanitarian problems for the population of the region still experiencing subzero temperatures despite early spring.
In remarks issued today Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva did not directly refer to the situation with gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh, but urged official Yerevan not to interfere in what she described as “Azerbaijan’s internal affairs” regarding different situations.