Azerbaijan is taking advantage of the global—especially Russian—focus on the Ukraine crisis to provoke, threaten and attack the peaceful population of Artsakh, said Artsakh State Minister Artak Beglaryan, who urged Baku to immediately stop its “ruthless behavior.”
“In recent days, taking advantage of the whole world’s and especially Russia’s preoccupation with the situation in Ukraine, the provocations and threats carried out by Azerbaijan against the peaceful population of Artsakh have drastically increased,” Beglaryan said in a statement on Friday.
He explained that over an extended period, the area’s agricultural industry has been affected as a result of Azerbaijan’s continue ceasefire violations.
Since late last month, Azerbaijani forces have been incessantly shelling civilian areas, especially the Khramort and villages in the Askeran region that is adjacent to Aghdam, which was surrendered to Azerbaijan after the 2020 war.
This past week, Beglaryan explained, mortar fire and use of heavy artillery have increased. This, coupled with Azerbaijan’s refusal to allow a broken gas pipeline to be fixed and restore the flow of natural gas to Artsakh, have exacerbated the situation for the residents of Artsakh.
For several days, large-caliber weapons have been fired in the direction of our settlements. Yesterday, 50-year-old Suren Baghryan from Khramort village was wounded with a mortar shell while doing agricultural work in the yard of his house.
“Until now, Russian peacekeepers and our [Artsakh] representatives have not been allowed to approach the pipeline and restore the gas supply,” said Beglaryan, referring to the main pipeline carrying natural gas to Artsakh from Armenia, which was damaged on Monday.
“With the support of Russian peacekeepers, we continue negotiations for a peaceful resolution of the issues. At the same time, we are taking precautionary measures to ensure the safety of our population,” added Beglaryan.
Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan said on Friday that the continuous shelling of civilian areas in Artsakh by Azerbaijani forces is carried out in order to compel residents to leave their homes and is part of Baku’s policy to rid Artsakh of all its Armenian roots.
Speaking at a discussion on Azerbaijan’s hatred toward Armenians and its consequence, Stepanyan warned that Azerbaijan wants to evict Armenians from Artsakh and carry out ethnic cleansing.
“The policy of ethnic and religious hatred by Azerbaijan has been carried out also during the Soviet years, and the authorities of the Azerbaijani SSR always advanced a policy that made the life of Armenians in the territory of Artsakh not so favorable,” Stepanyan said.
According to Stepanyan, after the first Artsakh war when the ceasefire was signed, it seemed it was possible to ensure the security of Artsakh and its residents. However, he said, Azerbaijan’s policy of Armenophobia further deepened.
“It [the policy] entered schools, various specific events were being organized, everything was done to bring up a generation in Azerbaijan that literally hates and doesn’t tolerate Armenian people—specifically Christian Armenians—because there are the two components of ethnic and religious hatred,” explained Stepanyan.
“We witnessed that hatred during the 2020 war because Azerbaijanis were not only brutally killing and torturing the Armenian soldiers, but also were desecrating the Armenian Christian heritage,” said Stepanyan.
He also touched on the disruption of natural gas supplies to Artsakh, saying that it has created multiple humanitarian problems.
“The disruption of the gas supply had made it impossible for the residents to exercise their rights. It mostly affected the education system,” Stepanyan said. “Yesterday the ministry of education of Artsakh already made a statement announcing that the spring break will start sooner due to the current situation. In other words, it is already seen that children’s education will be affected because of the gas problem.”
He said that the gas issue has also impacted every-day essentials, impeding food production facilities and bread bakeries.
