We Urgently Appeal to Russia, the USA, and France: Araik Harutyunyan

The President of the Republic of Artsakh, Araik Harutyunyan, has made a statement calling for measures to open the Lachin corridor. For the past two months, Azerbaijan has been holding the approximately 120,000 people of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) under conditions of criminal and terrorist blockade, aiming to carry out ethnic cleansing in Artsakh.

This illegal blockade contradicts all norms of international law and Azerbaijan's commitments, including those outlined in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020. This blockade, based on Azerbaijani state policy of racial hatred against Armenians, is comprehensive; it deprives 120,000 Artsakh residents of normal access to food, energy, healthcare, and other essential products and services, thereby constituting a serious, deliberate, and mass assault on the lives and other rights of our compatriots.

Since January 20, in an effort to overcome the acute food shortages caused by the blockade, the government of Artsakh has been forced to limit food access through rationing, allowing each person a monthly allocation of one kilogram of rice, buckwheat, pasta, sugar, and oil, with the range being expanded in the coming days.

During the harsh winter conditions, by disrupting electricity and gas supplies, Azerbaijan has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh. Due to heating and food issues, all kindergartens, elementary, and secondary schools in the republic have been closed, depriving around 20,000 children and adolescents of normal education. Many economic enterprises have also halted operations, leaving thousands of citizens unemployed. Construction of about 3,700 housing units intended for those forcibly displaced from Azerbaijani-occupied territories has been stopped, along with planned surgeries, placing the health and lives of around 600 citizens at additional risk.

We are grateful to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeeping mission for their efforts in ensuring the transfer of nearly 90 seriously ill individuals to Armenia, reuniting dozens of separated families, and delivering minimal food supplies to Artsakh, helping us prevent cases of starvation. However, the situation remains unbearable, with a severe shortage of food, medicines, and other vital supplies, continued disruptions in gas and electricity supplies, thousands of families separated, economic collapse, and other crisis conditions.

We welcome the clear calls from the executive and legislative branches of many countries, as well as international organizations to Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally lift the blockade. These demands and positions, however, have little impact in the face of Azerbaijan's fanatical and hate-filled intransigence. Therefore, the international community must move from words to action, as it does in other regions where early warning signs of genocide are present.

We appeal urgently to Russia, the USA, and France, who co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as to all members of the international community, to take effective measures, collectively or individually, to open the lifeline for Artsakh and prevent new crimes. In this context, we urge them to impose sanctions against all perpetrators and supporters of crimes against the people of Artsakh and against the Azerbaijani state, including, among other sanctions, banning their entry into their own territories and freezing their movable and immovable properties in their countries.

Azerbaijan's attempt at ethnic cleansing against the people of Artsakh falls under the legal concept of crimes against humanity (erga omnes). Preventing this is a moral, legal, and political obligation that is mandatory for all parties that have signed the Charter of the United Nations. Therefore, it is the obligation of each member of the international community to do all they can to defend the people of Artsakh and ensure they live with dignity in their homeland.