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The UN Security Council will start an emergency meeting on blockade-hit Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) at 11 p.m. Wednesday (Yerevan time).

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan will fly to New York to take part in the session.

The UN body scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenia urged the international community to help end Azerbaijan’s months-long blockade of the Lachin Corridor.

Armenia’s ambassador to the UN, Mher Margaryan, last week wrote to the UN Security Council to warn that Nagorno-Karabakh “is on the verge of a full-fledged humanitarian catastrophe.”

“The severe shortage of essential goods including food, medicine and fuel has been particularly exacerbated since 15 June 2023, when Azerbaijan completely blocked the Lachin Corridor - the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and the outer world - by denying any form of access to Nagorno-Karabakh, including humanitarian. The continued deliberate obstruction of natural gas and electricity supply to Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan has been detrimental for the affected population and their livelihoods,” the diplomat said.

“With reference to the letter dated 13 September 2022 from the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2022/688), and in follow up to the meeting of the Security Council held on 20 December 2022, I would like to request that an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council be convened based on Article 35 (1) of the UN Charter,” he added.