Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that two persons were recently abducted by Azerbaijan in addition to the 33 prisoners of war the Baku has so far failed to repatriate following the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, which was meant to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
According to Pashinyan, many provisions are regularly violated by Azerbaijan.
“You see you mentioned Nagorno Karabakh in your question, and everyone understands that,” Pashinyan said in an interview with Euronews, when asked to what he attributes the constant hostility in Sough Caucasus.
“But Azerbaijan continues to claim there is no Nagorno Karabakh, although the November 9 trilateral statement defines the existence of Nagorno Karabakh as an entity, and the President of Azerbaijan signed hat statement. Moreover, he agreed that there is a line of contact in Nagorno Karabakh, and Nagorno Karabakh has a territory that is the defined paragraph 7 of the trilateral statement.
“Moreover, paragraph 7 of the statement provides that refugees and internally displaces persons shall return to the territory of Nagorno Karabakh and the adjacent districts under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Unfortunately, to date Azerbaijan has not secured this right.
“Moreover, they are carrying out constructions in a number of villages that the Armenian population was forced to flee from during the war, and Azerbaijan declares that it will resettle these territories with Azerbaijanis.”
Since December 12, 2022, the sole road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia – the Lachin Corridor – has been blocked by Azerbaijan. Baku tightened the blockade on June 15, 2023, banning emergency relief supplies that were carried out by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world. The move aggravated the shortages of food, medicine and other essential items experienced by the region’s population.
