Human rights defenders of Armenia and Artsakh Kristine Grigoryan and Gegham Stepanyan issued a statement.
"The only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the world has been closed for two days. The movement of people and goods was deliberately stopped, and 120,000 children, older adults, women, and men in Artsakh found themselves in an existential trap.
One thousand one hundred people, including more than 270 children, cannot return home due to the movement blockade. Patients needing urgent medical care cannot be transported to Armenia for professional care. The supply of food and medical supplies has stopped.
The life, health care, livelihood, free movement, education, and other vital and inalienable rights of 120 thousand of people are at risk.
Yesterday at 18:00, the Azerbaijani side also cut off the gas supply to Artsakh in the conditions of severe winter cold, using the tool tested in March of this year to generate a humanitarian disaster.
People are deprived of heating and hot water; medical institutions cannot provide primary medical care, and the educational process in Artsakh educational institutions has been stopped.
To "guarantee" the freedom of assembly of Azerbaijani "environmentalists" who blocked the vital road, new forces of "activists" in civilian clothes are being transported to the meeting place by the Azerbaijani side. Moreover, there is undeniable proof that among the people blocking the road are also employees of the Azerbaijani special services. The majority of the participants of the meeting are representatives of "non-governmental organizations" operating exclusively with state financing.
In parallel, the propaganda of Armenian hatred is steadily fulfilling its tasks, keeping the level of hatred of the Azerbaijani public alive.
Day by day, the state propaganda machine, through the Azerbaijani press and social platforms, intensifies the speech of inciting the anger and hatred of the Azerbaijani public against the Russian peacekeeping unit.
After the previous incidents of targeting and intimidation of the civilian population, the combined analysis of all these facts, which began at the beginning of December, completes the goals of the Azerbaijani state policy, namely, to depopulate Artsakh and exterminate the Armenian population through a humanitarian crisis.
In such conditions, to prevent a new genocide, we call on the governments and international actors involved in the resolution of the conflict to use all possible diplomatic measures to stop the blockade of Artsakh and restore the gas supply, to stop the impending humanitarian disaster and to guarantee the rights of the people living in Artsakh," their statement said.
