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Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on Wednesday issued a statement on the current situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) blocked by Azerbaijan since December 12. The full text of the statement is provided below.

"For quite a long time, the population of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have been isolated from the outside world due to the closure of the lifeline road connecting Artsakh to Armenia in the first place by a group of Azerbaijanis (who call themselves “environmentalists”). In fact, it has been proven that these subjects, who call themselves "environmentalists", have nothing in common with the environmental movement and represent various circles of the state, military, and special services of Azerbaijan.

For 10 days already, they have been isolating the population of Artsakh, depriving them of basic human rights and opportunities to provide for their vital needs, creating a humanitarian catastrophe for them.

At present, the population of Artsakh is more than 120,000 people. This figure is comparable to the population of, for example, Orleans (France), Cambridge (Great Britain), and Zurich (Switzerland). It is impossible to believe that if these cities/regions found themselves in such a situation, the world community would remain silent and inactive.

The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan, coordinating these actions of the so-called "environmentalists", violates not only the tripartite agreements reached on November 9, 2020, but also international conventions and treaties on human rights reached by the UN and adopted by most countries of the world.

The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia is extremely concerned about the policy pursued by the Azerbaijani state in today's difficult conditions. NAS calls on all its international partners and societies, international scientific and humanitarian organizations to raise their voice of protest in order to avoid the danger of a new genocide of the Armenian people and, first of all, the population of Artsakh. We call for assistance to the Armenian people in finding and working out appropriate solutions to resolve the extremely dangerous situation that has arisen. Otherwise, we will put the world before the fact of a malicious violation of human rights as the highest value of democratic countries and peoples, the fact of the new genocide of the Armenian people already in the 21st century."