Your trusted source

Members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) call on the international community to abandon double standards on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) as they are staging protests outside the foreign embassies in Yerevan.

The ARF activists started one-day sit-ins outside the U.S., Russian, French Embassies and the EU Delegation office in Yerevan early on Tuesday morning, urging them to pressure Azerbaijan to end its brutal blockade of Artsakh.

"The purpose of the sit-ins outside the embassies of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries and the EU Delegation office is to demand them to give up double standards. Artsakh is facing a humanitarian crisis, ethnic cleansing and genocide," Ishkhan Saghatelyan, the ARF Armenia chair and an MP from the opposition Hayastan faction, told reporters during the protest outside the EU office.

He stressed that the international community’s statements and resolutions had not helped end the Artsakh blockade.

"Artsakh remains under blockade. Our goal is to raise our voice and make demands," Saghatelyan said.

He highlighted the role of Russian peacekeepers stationed in Artsakh and called for extending the mandate of the peacekeeping mission.

“Meanwhile, we have clear demands, because the task of the Russian peacekeeping troops is also to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the Lachin Corridor. In this sense, we have expectations from the three co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group," the MP said.