Artsakh Republic Minister of State Ruben Vardanyan gave interviews to international media, presenting the situation created by Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh.

In an interview to the Swedish National Radio, answering the question presented by the Azerbaijani side about the environmental reasons for the closure of the corridor and the violation of the Trilateral Statement of 9 November, 2020, Ruben Vardanyan noticed that Azerbaijan’s claims do not sound credible to anyone, because the whole world knows that nothing “under the responsibility of environmentalists” happens in an authoritarian country.

“Can you remember how many environmental protests took place in Azerbaijan in the last 10 years?” he asked.

– We do not have mechanisms in Artsakh to put pressure on a country that has signed a document confirming the right to freely use the corridor, and today this country is violating it. We demand that the international community provide us with a humanitarian air corridor so that we can bring food and basic necessities. However, Azerbaijan does not allow this either. Therefore, we perceive this as a state policy, a state position that very clearly shows that they want to get us all out of here and carry out ethnic cleansing in order to get Artsakh without Armenians.”  

In an interview with the British Byline Times periodical, Ruben Vardanyan presented the situation created as a result of the blockade in Artsakh. “We are under this siege for twenty-four days. There is already a shortage of basic food and products.”  

The Minister of State told the newspaper that he is also among the 5,000 Artsakh residents who are separated from their families this Christmas. “For the first time in my life, I am separated from my family on Christmas. Basically, we are hostages of Azerbaijan while the road is closed.”

Presenting the call of the Minister of State of Artsakh to the international community to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan if the blockade continues, the columnist notes that the situation in Ukraine has “thrown the West into the arms of Azerbaijan, driven by the desperate search for energy security”. “By blocking the Lachin Corridor, Aliyev signals once again that he is seeking complete control over an area that Armenians consider part of their heritage, religion, culture and historical identity,” the author concludes.