Category: 2022

A group of women of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on Thursday held a peaceful rally—together with their children—outside the children’s hospital of capital Stepanakert.

They demand that international organizations force Azerbaijan to resume natural gas supply to Artsakh.

The people of Artsakh are concerned that they may be deprived of other vital necessities as well in the near future.

“The people of Artsakh do not want to leave their land and house; let the Azerbaijanis understand that. The people of Artsakh have lived and will live in Artsakh. Artsakh is not Azerbaijan, and will never be! We will live and fight for our rights. They cannot de-Armenianize Artsakh,” said a participant of this peaceful protest.

Azerbaijan is gradually expanding its opportunities for pressure on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)—and this is not limited to the suspension of the natural gas supply. Tigran Abrahamyan, an MP from the opposition “With Honor” Faction in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and a security expert, stated about this during Thursday’s press briefings in the NA.

According to him, talking about all the challenges and threats is unproductive at this phase.

The lawmaker, however, admitted that alarming processes are taking place around Artsakh.

“The way out of the current situation is not being discussed yet,” Abrahamyan said.

As for the current suspension of natural gas supply to Artsakh, the MP called it a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

According to him, these disruptions in natural gas supply have caused a chain reaction and had a negative impact on the lives of the Armenians of Artsakh.

“If the issue of heating is pushed to the background after the warming of the weather, the negative effect on the economy and industry will only continue to intensify,” Tigran Abrahamyan added.

Russian peacekeepers are now negotiating with Azerbaijanis who entered the village of Parukh in Artsakh’s Askeran province, Vardan Mkhitaryan, the head of Parukh village, told NEWS.am.

“We quickly evacuated people, there were roads, we passed through them. They entered the village from different sides without shooting, forming a chain. The positions of the Azerbaijanis are 1 kilometer away from our village,” Mkhitaryan said.

The head of Khramort village, Zorik Abrahamyan, did not answer our questions. “The situation is not good,” he said.

Artsakh Information Center has spread a message which says: “According to the situation as of 4:00 pm on 24 March, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have violated the line of contact in the direction of Parukh village of Askeran. The representatives of the Defense Army and Russian peacekeepers deployed in the Republic of Artsakh are trying to stop the further advance of the enemy through negotiations and return them to their initial positions. The women and children of the Khramort community of Askeran district are being evacuated for security reasons. We urge the population to remain calm, and the situation in all other sections of the line of contact is stable for the moment.”

The Azerbaijani authorities are implementing ethnic cleansings against Artsakh through terrorist acts, former Armenian ombudsman Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook.

“This is a genocidal policy (on ethnic and religious grounds) against over 100,000 population of Artsakh: shootings at villages, civilian houses; the entire population (hospitals, schools, etc.) is deprived of gas [heating and hot water]; through incursions and psychological intimidation, threats with force they force people to leave their houses, etc.

It is of absolute urgency to pay close international attention to what is happening in Artsakh, to not allow isolation from the outside world. Human rights and security of people must not be ignored. The Azerbaijani authorities pursue their genocidal policies by isolating Artsakh.

I have already contacted a number of international journalists today to keep the issue in the spotlight.”

Soldiers of Artsakh Defense Army in Khramort are ready to resist possible provocations of Azerbaijan, local residents created a self-defense detachment, CivilNet reported.

“Azerbaijanis have advanced in the direction of the village of Parukh. If they capture the heights, they will gain positional superiority over the neighboring villages of Noragyugh and Khnabad.”