Azerbaijanis blocked the road of Artsakh Armenians and announced that entry will be allowed only if they accept Azerbaijani citizenship. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of State Gurgen Nersisyan noted this in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.

"Azerbaijan has changed the purpose and motivation of blocking the road. This is an obvious provocation by the Azerbaijanis, as they tried not only to obstruct the entry to [Artsakh capital] Stepanakert, but also to create a climate of fear," Nersisyan emphasized.

He dismissed the statements of the Azerbaijani side claiming that they showed humanity and urgently transferred the women—who had felt ill due to the Azerbaijanis’ break-in to their car—to a medical facility.

"These assessments and explanations of Azerbaijan are so simplistic and false; I would describe it as follows: Azerbaijan suffocated people, after which it tried to give artificial respiration in order to announce that it saved people's lives. The situation was directly provoked by the Azerbaijanis. As a result of the provocative actions, what should happen to the elderly women? With those actions, they surely had predicted such a situation, after which, when the Russian peacekeepers tried to include an ambulance, the Azerbaijanis immediately presented themselves as medical workers in order to provide medical assistance. And it is noteworthy that when the peacekeepers offered to call an ambulance from [Artsakh capital] Stepanakert, they [i.e., the Azerbaijanis] demonstratively offered to provide medical assistance in Shushi. And after receiving a refusal, they prohibited the possibility of emergency vehicles to approach the given location, and in fact, the Reus peacekeepers gave priority to the maintaining the health of our citizens in the given situation. It was demonstrative and also aimed to demonstrate humanism, and in that way they [i.e., the Azerbaijanis] tried to cover up their action, but in fact they directly prohibited the approach of our ambulance," said the Minister of State of Artsakh.