Artsakh President Arayk Harutyunyan made a statement.

“During the press conference held today, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, very accurately noted that the Karabakh issue was left as a legacy of the Soviet Union. As for the visit of Azerbaijani “environmentalists” to mines, the reality is that on December 3, after blocking the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia for the first time, the Azerbaijani side, through Russian peacekeepers, forwarded written proposals to Artsakh authorities, which had nothing to do with environmental issues and were absolutely unacceptable for Artsakh.

Despite this, the Artsakh side showed a constructive approach, conveying to the Azerbaijani side through the peacekeepers the conditions under which they would be ready to allow Azerbaijani environmentalists to visit the mine. The Azerbaijani side did not comply with the conditions of the Artsakh side and their response was to block the road for a long time, not only creating serious humanitarian problems for the 120 thousand people of Artsakh but also grossly violating the 2020 points of the tripartite statement of November 9. We hope that during today’s meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan, the issue of the importance of maintaining the points of the tripartite declaration was also discussed.

Nevertheless, despite the violations of the Azerbaijani side, the Artsakh authorities declare today that they are in a constructive mood and are ready to engage as a negotiating party in the discussions of any issue related to Artsakh.”