Azerbaijanis have just prohibited the entry of Artsakh residents to Artsakh at the blocked section of the Stepanakert-Goris road. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of State Gurgen Nersisyan wrote about this on Facebook on Tuesday night.

"As of December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan has closed and keeps in a state of not being passed the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia, leaving the entire population of Artsakh to rely on humanitarian cargo transportation. Hundreds of Artsakh residents have remained [stranded] in the Republic of Armenia [(RA)] and are not able to return to Artsakh, their place of residence, for almost four months.

"Today, Russian peacekeepers tried to transport 27 of our citizens (including children, women and elderly) from the RA city of Goris to Artsakh, but near the city of Shushi on the Goris-Stepanakert highway, the Azerbaijanis prohibited the movement of vehicles in the blocked section of the road. Due to the intervention of Azerbaijanis on the spot, four of our citizens felt ill, the Russian peacekeepers ensured the arrival of an ambulance and the transfer of the said four persons to [Artsakh capital] Stepanakert hospital. And the rest are being returned by the Russian peacekeepers to the city of Goris because the long and persistent negotiations [with the Azerbaijanis] have not yielded any results.

"Azerbaijan, which regularly declares that the road connecting Artsakh to Armenia is open, today openly prohibited the entry of Artsakh residents to their place of residence. Azerbaijan shows the completely opposite approach regarding those leaving Artsakh for Armenia, which directly documents their criminal behavior and intention to expel Armenians from Artsakh.

"The most convincing facts about the circumstances of the incident will be presented later," added the Minister of State of Artsakh.