A regular session of the RA government was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Before discussing the agenda, the Prime Minister referred to the closing of the gas supply pipe to Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan again yesterday and noted that in 2022 since December 12, Azerbaijan has carried out about 27 similar operations with the pipeline supplying gas to Nagorno-Karabakh, which has led to a humanitarian and environmental crisis. In his speech, Nikol Pashinyan noted:

"Dear participants of the government session,

Dear people,

Yesterday, Azerbaijan closed the gas supply pipeline to Nagorno Karabakh, while the gas supply was restored one day ago. Azerbaijan opened the channel seven days ago and closed it four days before. Since December 12, Azerbaijan has stopped the gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh 7 times. Moreover, this statistic only expresses a part of the picture because various events occur between gas supply stops and restorations. Say, for example, the gas supply is stopped partially. Still, at 50 percent, the volume of supplied gas becomes 70 percent, then drops to 10 percent, the next moment becomes 30 percent, then recovers completely, then drops again to 40 percent, and so on. Such wildfires can sometimes occur several times a day or every few days. Moreover, this is no longer the "environmentalists" but a state action because if the "environmentalists" are present and visible in the Lachin corridor, they were not noticed in the gas pipeline.

Since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan has carried out about 27 similar operations with the pipeline supplying gas to Nagorno Karabakh. It should be emphasized that Azerbaijan's illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which has an "environmental" guise, has led to real environmental problems in Nagorno-Karabakh because, as you know, Azerbaijan has also blocked the supply of electricity to Nagorno-Karabakh and because local power generation capacities are not enough, the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh have to carry out fan shutdowns of electric current for 6, 8, 10 hours a day, depending on the weather. In these conditions, our compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh are forced to use wood to heat their homes, leading to deforestation, which can turn into a serious environmental disaster, especially if we consider that snow has fallen in Nagorno-Karabakh. The air temperature at night drops to 5 degrees below zero.

According to this, Azerbaijan's alleged environmental goals are once again being undermined because Azerbaijan's illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which began 60 days ago, has led to an ecological crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, in addition to a humanitarian crisis.

Dear attendees,

Dear people,

These actions of Azerbaijan have one goal: to break the will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their homeland, which, we believe, is unbreakable. However, we must increase our efforts to focus international attention on the extreme humanitarian and now also environmental crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is the result of the aggressive and provocative actions of Azerbaijan.

At the same time, I want to thank those international organizations and countries that have expressed an objective position about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh. Our global efforts should also be aimed at making the emerging environmental crisis a broad, comprehensive international discussion subject. And the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the humanitarian and ecological crisis established in Nagorno-Karabakh must become the subject of a more standardized global discussion because only the undiminished activity of the international community is the way to curb Azerbaijan. Thank you."