Statement on UN Security Council session on Artsakh humanitarian disaster

We welcome the meeting of the United Nations Security
Council held on 16 August 2023, to discuss the humanitarian catastrophe that
has emerged in the Republic of Artsakh as a result of the illegal blockade of
the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan. The Artsakh Foreign Ministry made a
statement on this.

The Artsakh Foreign Ministry noted that it is disappointing
that certain delegations attempted to find an illusory and highly risky balance
between the aspirations of the people of Artsakh to live in their homeland in
freedom, security and dignity, and Azerbaijan’s ambition to forcefully
subjugate and annihilate them. 

“There can be no compromise between universal values of
freedom, human dignity, peace and justice on one hand, and the extreme
manifestations of systematic and large-scale human rights violations, carried
out with the intent of the physical destruction of a people, on the other,”
reads the statement.

The Artsakh Foreign Ministry expects that the member states
of the United Nations Security Council will demonstrate consistency and а
principled stance in preventing further criminal actions against the people of
Artsakh, and will consolidate their position by adopting a resolution compelling
Azerbaijan to lift the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor without any
preconditions or linkages to alternative routes.