For two months now, Azerbaijan has been keeping around 120,000 people of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) under siege with criminal and terrorist activities, with the aim of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Artsakh. This illegal blockade contradicts all the norms of international law and the obligations assumed by Azerbaijan, including within the framework of the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020.

This is stated in the statement addressed to the international community by Arayik Harutyunyan, President of the Republic of Armenia.

"This blockade, which is based on the Azerbaijani state policy of racial hatred against Armenians, is comprehensive. It deprives 120,000 Artsakh citizens of normal access to food, energy, healthcare, and other vital goods and services and is therefore a serious, deliberate, and massive attack on the lives and other rights of our compatriots.

Since January 20, to deal with severe food shortages caused by the blockade, the Artsakh government has been forced to limit access to food through coupons: one kilogram of rice, buckwheat, pasta, sugar, and oil per person per month, the scope of which will be increased in the near future.

By disrupting the electricity and gas supply in severe winter conditions, Azerbaijan deepened the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh. Because of heating and food problems, all kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools in the country were closed, depriving about 20,000 children and teenagers in the country of normal education. Many economic enterprises have also been suspended, rendering thousands of citizens unemployed. The construction and other construction works of about 3,700 apartments intended for forcibly displaced persons from the territories occupied by Azerbaijan have stopped. Planned operations have also been stopped, putting the health and lives of around 600 citizens at additional risk.

We are grateful to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeeping mission for their efforts to ensure the transfer of about 90 seriously ill people in a crisis situation to Armenia, to reunite dozens of separated families, and to transport to Artsakh the minimum amount of food that allows us to prevent cases of starvation. However, the situation remains unbearable, with a great shortage of food, medicine, and other vital supplies, continuous disruption of gas and electricity supply, separation of thousands of families, the collapse of the economy, and other crisis conditions.

We welcome the clear calls of the executive and legislative authorities of many countries, as well as international organizations, to Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally lift the blockade. Those demands and positions, however, have little effect in the face of Azerbaijan's bigoted and hateful intransigence. This is why the international community must act, as it has done in other regions when there are early warning signs of genocide.

We appeal primarily to Russia, the USA and France, which co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as to all members of the international community, to jointly or individually take effective measures to open the life road of Artsakh and prevent new crimes. In that context, we urge them to impose sanctions on all perpetrators and supporters of crimes against the people of Artsakh and the state of Azerbaijan, among other sanctions, by banning them from entering their own territories and freezing movable and immovable property in their countries.

Azerbaijan's attempted ethnic cleansing of the people of Artsakh is part of the legal concept of crimes against humanity (erga omnes). Its prevention is a moral, legal, and political obligation binding on all signatories to the United Nations Charter. Therefore, it is the obligation of every member of the international community to do their best to protect the people of Artsakh and to live with dignity in their own homeland," the text says.