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Artsakh's Gegham Stepanyan Human Rights Defender on Friday issued a statement regarding the ban on humanitarian access to Artsakh by Azerbaijan. Below is the full statement.

"It’s been more than a week that the humanitarian transportation to Nagorno-Karabakh, carried out only by the ICRC and the Russian peacekeepers during the blockade, has been completely banned by Azerbaijan. This further aggravates the humanitarian crisis created by the 6-month-long blockade. Acute shortages of food and medicine pose serious existential threats to our people.

Throughout the blockade, Azerbaijan has constantly used the humanitarian transportation to claim that the Lachin corridor is not blocked, while, in fact, turned the humanitarian issues into its tools of pressure. Amidst the international inaction, Azerbaijan behaves with the sense of total impunity, ignoring the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, the decisions of the ECHR and ICJ.

Azerbaijan promises rights, yet criminally blocks the humanitarian access to Nagorno Karabakh. Some international actors blindly believe these false promises of Azerbaijan, intentionally ignoring its true actions and intentions. But for how long is the reality going to be ignored?

What Azerbaijan offers is ethnic cleansing and forced subjugation. In both cases, we are dealing with the same crime, which grossly violates the fundamental human rights to self-determination and the right to live in homeland free of discrimination and ethnic hatred.

Doesn’t this critical situation mean that all international actors have obligations to counteract Azerbaijan with urgent methods? Isn’t the genocidal policy pursued by Azerbaijan being normalised by you? In the 21st century, before your eyes, 120,000 people are subjected to inhuman treatment on a daily basis, while all you do is nothing but occasional statements of concern.

The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian access is a war crime under international law. I once again call you to finally put an end to this criminal indifference, prevent another war crime and acknowledge that the responsibility for Nagorno-Karabakh people lies on you, too. After all, indifference and inaction are equal to complicity.”