Thousands Rally In Nagorno-Karabakh To Protest Land Blockade

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Hundreds rallied on Sunday in Azerbaijan, within the Nagorno-Karabakh area’s largest metropolis Stepanakert, to protest the blockade of the one land hyperlink to Armenia, an AFP journalist noticed.

Baku and Yerevan fought two wars — in 2020 and within the Nineties — over the contested area of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan.

For almost two weeks Azerbaijani activists have blocked the Lachin hall, the one land hyperlink to Armenia, to protest what they declare is illegitimate mining.

Yerevan has accused Baku of staging demonstrations and making a humanitarian disaster within the mountainous enclave.

On Sunday, beneath a vivid solar, Stepanakert’s predominant Renaissance Sq. was flooded with protesters, with a large Armenian flag hoisted above the group.

“Now we have been beneath a whole blockade imposed by Azerbaijan, as the one highway linking the Artsakh to the skin world is closed,” member of the ombudsman’s workplace Mary Asatryan mentioned

utilizing the Armenian identify for the breakaway province.

“On this holy Christmas day, we’re standing right here and name for motion, the deliberate blockade of 120,000 individuals is a criminal offense in opposition to humanity,” Asatryan mentioned, addressing the group on loudspeakers.

The protests went easily, an AFP journalist mentioned. Among the many attendees was separatist chief Arayik Harutyunyan.

Within the crowd, a small lady in a pink coat held an indication that learn “Open the ‘highway of life'”.

Others held banners calling for “self-determination” and bearing the slogan “we cannot quit”.

Armenia’s parliament has mentioned Karabakh was affected by shortages of meals, drugs and gasoline following the closure of the hall.

Azerbaijan insists there is no such thing as a blockade and that civilian automobiles can transfer freely to and out of Karabakh.

“There is no such thing as a foundation for the claims that the protests on Lachin pose a risk of humanitarian disaster,” Azerbaijan’s overseas ministry mentioned in an announcement revealed Sunday.

However residents who spoke to AFP have been fearful.

“That is the one highway that connects Artsakh with the remainder of the world. Not solely Armenia, we attain the remainder of the world by way of Armenia,” 70-year-old Stepanakert resident Donara Gabrielyan instructed AFP on Saturday.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-week warfare in autumn 2020.

The combating claimed greater than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that noticed Yerevan cede territories it had managed for many years.

However Moscow is embroiled in a 10-month-long Ukraine offensive, and Armenia has mentioned Russian peacekeepers deployed within the area have been failing to forestall the blockade.

Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov defended the Russian peacekeeping contingent, saying it was “clearly fulfilling its duties” whereas working in “very tough circumstances”.

Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev are anticipated at a gathering of the leaders of the post-Soviet sovereign states in Saint Petersburg subsequent week.

However Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed state-run information company Interfax Sunday {that a} tripartite assembly with the Russian president on the sidelines of the summit was “not envisaged”.

With Moscow more and more remoted on the world stage following its February offensive on Ukraine, america and the European Union tried to mediate.

Talks in Brussels deliberate in December between Yerevan and Baku have been cancelled after Azerbaijan accused France of backing Armenia within the decades-long battle.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron known as his Azerbaijani counterpart to name for “permitting free motion alongside the Lachin hall”, in line with an Elysee press assertion.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The following battle claimed round 30,000 lives.