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The RA NA President Alen Simonyan addressed with an official letter on Lachin crisis to the heads of parliaments of more than 30 countries and the Presidents of the International Parliamentary Organizations. In the document, particularly attention is drawn to the issue of the blockade of the only road connecting the Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia, the Lachin corridor for more than a month.

The letter says that the blocking of the Lachin corridor being under control of the Russian peacekeeping forces is a gross violation of the international obligations assumed by the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020 by Azerbaijan.

Touching upon the 120.000 Armenians living in Artsakh and being under blockade, it is noted that the in Nagorno Karabakh the humanitarian crisis deepens day by day. “The risk of malnutrition gradually becomes more tangible. 41 kindergartens and 20 schools are closed. Thousands of children are deprived of the right to education.

Moreover, this blockade impedes the free move of the Nagorno Karabakh population. During the last weeks at least 1.100 civilians remained blocked along the highway, being unable to return to their houses,” the official letter says. A reference is also made to the 270 minors who have received temporary shelter in Armenia, and their parents are in Artsakh.

The RA NA President informs that today Nagorno Karabakh lives in the conditions of isolation with extreme electricity shortages, without services of vital importance for life and accessibility of goods.

“This siege is nothing but vivid continuity of the consistent policy of ethnic cleansing being carried out by Azerbaijan,” the document says.

In the letter it is mentioned that a number of governments, including France and the United States, together with the European Union, the European Parliament and numerous national parliaments, the UN, the human rights organizations, the well-known international organizations being engaged with the issues of genocide condemned this illegal and hostile action and called on to urgently and unreservedly unblock the corridor.

“Once again underlining the determination of the Armenian side to build peace and stability in the region, we call on the international colleagues to undertake additional measures for preventing the grave situation in Nagorno Karabakh, including the use of sanctions against Azerbaijan,” the RA NA President’s letter is concluded with these lines.

This is the second similar official letter by the RA NA President Alen Simonyan to his international colleagues. The Head of Parliament also addressed his colleagues on this issue on December 14, 2022 after the adoption of the RA NA Statement on Causing Humanitarian Crisis in Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan.