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The humanitarian crisis in blockade-hit Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is worsening day by day and is close to escalating into a new big tragedy, activist Avetik Chalabyan, coordinator of the Hayakve initiative, warned on Saturday.

The Hayakve ballot initiative started in early July collecting signatures in support of its demands to make Artsakh’s recognition as part of Azerbaijan and the renunciation of the Armenian Genocide recognition campaign crimes punishable by between 10 and 15 years in jail.

The group has to collect at least 50,000 signatures in seven weeks to push the proposed amendments to Armenia’s Criminal Code through the parliament. A total of 38,500 people have already joined Hayakve’s petition campaign.

"People are coming to realize that we have launched this initiative not to make some abstract legislative amendments far off from reality, but to achieve a settlement of the current situation resulting from numerous mistakes and miscalculations of the current leadership," Chalabyan said.

“The incumbent authorities claim that Azerbaijan is plotting a genocide against Armenians in Artsakh, at the same time announcing readiness to recognize Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. This is classic schizophrenia. That is, the current authorities are ready to surrender Artsakh to Azerbaijan in order for Azerbaijan to commit a genocide of Artsakh’s Armenian population, this is the logical connection," he stated.

Chalabyan condemned the government for a campaign against Hayakve, urging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his team to focus their efforts on preventing an impending tragedy in Artsakh.