STEPANAKERT (Azerbaijan), Dec 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands rallied on Sunday in Azerbaijan, in the Nagorno-Karabakh region’s largest city Stepanakert, to protest the blockade of the only land link to Armenia.
For nearly two weeks Azerbaijani activists have blocked the Lachin corridor, the only land link to Armenia, to protest what they claim is illegal mining.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of staging demonstrations and creating a humanitarian crisis in the mountainous enclave.
On Sunday, under a bright sun, Stepanakert’s main Renaissance Square was flooded with protesters, with a giant Armenian flag hoisted above the crowd.
“We have been under a complete blockade imposed by Azerbaijan, as the only road linking the Artsakh to the outside world is closed,” member of the ombudsman’s office Mary Asatryan said, using the Armenian name for the breakaway province.
“On this holy Christmas day, we are standing here and call for action, the deliberate blockade of 120,000 people is a crime against humanity,” Asatryan said, addressing the crowd on loudspeakers.
Armenia’s parliament has said Karabakh was suffering from shortages of food, medicine and fuel following the closure of the corridor.
Azerbaijan insists there is no blockade and that civilian cars can move freely to and out of Karabakh.
“There is no basis for the claims that the protests on Lachin pose a threat of humanitarian crisis,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said in a statement published Sunday.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-week war in autumn 2020.
The fighting claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Yerevan cede territories it had controlled for decades.
Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev are expected at a gathering of the leaders of the post-Soviet sovereign states in Saint Petersburg next week.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state-run news agency Interfax Sunday that a tripartite meeting with the Russian president on the sidelines of the summit was “not envisaged”. — NNN-AGENCIES
