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Azerbaijan continues its ethnic cleansing policy in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday, adding his latest trilateral meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and President of the European Council Charles Michel in Brussels did not provide any concrete results in terms of opening the Lachin Corridor and ending the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh.

"In the conditions of the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, on July 15, I had a tripartite meeting in Brussels with the president of the European Council and the Azerbaijani president. Unfortunately, that meeting did not yield any concrete results in terms of opening the Lachin Corridor and overcoming the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh," the Armenian premier told a cabinet meeting.

In his statement following the meeting, the European Council chief emphasized the need to open the Lachin Corridor, as well as the need to address the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians through dialogue between Stepanakert and Baku, Pashinyan recalled.

"Our belief was and continues to be that without international involvement and mechanisms, this dialogue cannot be effective, at least because Baku continues its aggressive and threatening rhetoric towards the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, whose ultimate goal, in our estimation, is the implementation of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now it is not a theoretical claim, but a concrete plan being implemented by illegally blocking the Lachin Corridor, the direct manifestation of which is the complete lack of supply of electricity, natural gas, food and other essential goods to Nagorno Karabakh, in order to make it impossible for Armenians to live in Nagorno Karabakh," he stated.