YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: As of yesterday morning, the Azerbaijani side again closed of the Stepanakert-Goris road under the guise of an environmental action, essentially taking tens of thousands of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] Armenians under siege.

It is noteworthy that, unlike the provocations of the previous days when representatives of Artsakh were also engaged in the negotiations with the Azerbaijanis—in particular, SC [(Security Council)] secretary Vitaly Balasanyan was participating in the negotiations—, the MPs of Artsakh met with the commander of the [Russian] peacekeepers [in Artsakh], [Andrey] Volkov, yesterday the peacekeepers sharply rejected the participation of the Artsakh side [to the negotiations this time]. They did not permit even the MPs of the [Artsakh] NA [(National Assembly)] to approach the scene where Armenian cars were "captured" for more than two hours after the road was closed off [by the Azerbaijanis].

The Russian peacekeepers said that there is no question of negotiation, and this is also the demand of the Azerbaijanis. They said that solving the problem requires a political decision, and they are not going to remove the Azerbaijanis by force. When they receive that decision from "above," they will also know what to do.

It is due to this that in the message disseminated in the evening on behalf of the leaders of the NA factions, there was a call: "We urge the Russian peacekeepers to prevent such anti-human actions of the Azerbaijanis with the strictest measures within the framework of the tripartite agreement."