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The RA NA deputy, the Member of the RA NA Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, the deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Meri Galstyan gave a speech at the Meeting of the Committee on Energy Security within the framework of the Assembly Plenary Session on February 19.

The MP noted in her speech:

“Dear colleagues,

With all due respect to the importance of today’s committee agenda, it is difficult for me to not talk about current situation, to be more precise humanitarian crisis happening right now with severe violation of basic rights of 120.000 people living in Nagorno Karabakh including 30.000 kids and several thousands of disabled persons. This humanitarian crisis is caused by the Azerbaijan i environmentalists who have blockaded the only lifeline connecting Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) to Armenia and to the rest of the world - Lachin corridor, causing acute shortage of essential goods, food and medicine. Azerbaijan has also frequently and systematically been causing suspension of gas supply, which particularly aggravates situation under such weather conditions, putting NK with its 120,000 population at the brink of a humanitarian crisis. The disruption of gas supplies has begun since December 13 and continues to day which has prompted the Nagorno Karabakh authorities to announce school closures due to winter weather conditions depriving thousands of children from their basic right to education.

This environmental protest by itself is creating environmental crisis as both gas and electricity supplies are being systematically shut down forcing population searching for alternatives to take care of their basic needs.

This protest is actually discrediting global environmental agenda as its origin and credibility raises way too many questions. In my years long experience in the field of environmental protection never have I heard or learned about any prominent case of eco activism or civic demonstrations for the protection of environment within Azerbaijan. Instead I came across with quiet a long list of evidence that the situation regarding freedoms and rights related to environmental protection and mining in Azerbaijan are far from being, let’s say average

To name a few, in 2017 the international board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) took the decision to  suspend  Azerbaijan because the country lacks an enabling environment for civil society, a violation of the initiative’s requirements on multi-stakeholder engagement and its civil society protocol. Freedom House in its freedom of the world assessment report outlined repressive laws on NGOs used to pressure both local and foreign organizations, many of which have suspended operations when their bank accounts were frozen or their offices raided. According to the same report, civic activists are routinely subjected to harassment, intimidation, detention and abuse by police.

The list of similar assessments by international independent initiatives and watchdog organizations is not exhaustive. It draws a clear picture where the country stands in terms of environmental activism. But more importantly it says much more about the authenticity, origin and the real interests of the sudden outburst of Azerbaijani environmentalism blockading Lachin corridor. Given the extremely sensitive process of trying to reach peace in the region, I call on our international colleagues to carefully examine this situation, the scope of the humanitarian crisis impacting 120.000 people living in NK, and to take practical actions to end violations of the NK people’s rights to free movement and access to basic resources.

Putting this crisis in a wider context of our agenda, I think there is a serious need to cautiously review EaP countries’ energy policies to eliminate dependency on fossil energy imports and fossil fuels in general particularly from countries actions of which on their own constitute humanitarian crisis and severe violations of basic human rights within the region.”