During the meeting in New York over what Yerevan says is an ongoing blockade of the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that Armenia expected the UN Security Council to condemn “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, prohibited by international law” and “the unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving the civilian population in Nagorno-Karabakh of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supply and access for responses to conflict‑induced food insecurity.”
“[We expect the Council] to demand full compliance with obligations under the international humanitarian law, including those related to the protection of civilians, in particular women and children, and critical civilian infrastructure; to call for the immediate restoration of freedom and security of movement of persons, vehicles and cargo, in line with the previously reached agreements, through the Lachin corridor; to ensure full cooperation of the parties in good faith with the International Committee of the Red Cross and safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance; to dispatch an independent inter-agency needs assessment mission in Nagorno-Karabakh and provide humanitarian assistance to the affected population,” Mirzoyan said.
The Armenian minister emphasized that “these humanitarian issues clearly need to be resolved with the international community’s strong intervention before the negative consequences result in ethnic cleansing of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“According to the elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh, ‘this is a deliberately engineered crime, driven by evident genocidal intent. The Azerbaijani authorities purposefully instigated the blockade of the Lachin corridor, with the knowledge that it would subject the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh to a gradual demise, yet chose to persist with this course of action’,” Mirzoyan explained.
Presenting facts and figures, the chronology and consequences of the eight-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and the outside world, Mirzoyan noted: “The report of former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo reflects that it is already a genocide that is happening in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to Mr. Ocampo, “The blockade of the Lachin corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction. Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks’.”
The Armenian foreign minister stressed that “the prevention of such a catastrophe is a core duty of the United Nations and this Council.”
“I do believe that this distinguished body, despite of geopolitical differences, has capacity to act as genocide prevention body and not as genocide commemoration, when it might be too late,” he added.
“During the previous months, many of you tried to address the issue of opening the Lachin corridor. However, despite all the calls, the commitments undertaken by the Trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice the situation did not improve on the ground. Quite contrary, Azerbaijan incrementally but consistently severed the blockade to the degree of a complete siege of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia raised its concerns on the deepening of the humanitarian crisis as a result of a closure of the Lachin corridor in all negotiations with Azerbaijan, which were separately facilitated and mediated by the United States, the European Union and Russia. And yet to no avail.
“Throughout this time, Azerbaijan’s engagement has been anything but in good faith. Back to the first discussion on this issue in the Security Council, Azerbaijan denied any responsibility on the actions thereon and even claimed that it was not controlling the Lachin corridor. Throughout the past eight months, Azerbaijan brought a number of pretexts aimed at justifying its actions. First, it was so-called eco-activists with environmental concerns, then baseless allegations of transporting arms through the Lachin corridor, furthermore military provocations and so on,” Mirozyan said.
“The Lachin corridor has been agreed as a link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and has no alternative. The Lachin corridor should be opened, and when it comes to other possible communications, this should be addressed within an international mechanism of Baku-Stepanakert dialogue.
“Today I am here to seek the support of this august body in maintaining the prospect of reaching just and comprehensive peace and stability in our region, which is seriously undermined by Azerbaijan with the humanitarian calamity on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh.
During the last two years, Armenia, with the help of the international community, spared no efforts to establish peace and stability in our region. And I believe today we still have the opportunity to reach this aim. But the current humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has the full potential to deteriorate the prospects for peace in the whole region of South Caucasus and even beyond,” the Armenian foreign minister said.