The 361 tons of humanitarian aid sent to Nagorno-Karabakh last week in the conditions of the humanitarian crisis in the Lachin corridor, according to the decision of the Armenian governmental working group to support the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, continues to be located in the Kornidzor settlement sector of Armenia's Syunik Province, near the entrance to the Lachin corridor, because Azerbaijan, grossly violating the sixth point of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, illegally blocks the entry of these humanitarian cargoes into Nagorno-Karabakh. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government.

He reminded that the Armenian government made a decision to send humanitarian cargo to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced its impossibility to transport humanitarian cargo to Nagorno-Karabakh, as Azerbaijan illegally obstructs those efforts as well.

"Azerbaijan stubbornly continues to claim that one of the reasons for the closure of the Lachin corridor on June 15 of this year, as it puts it, is the military provocation of the Armenian side. Let me remind: on that day, Azerbaijan had tried to place a flag on the edge of the Hakari bridge, through the territory of Armenia, getting legal opposition from the border guard troops of Armenia," the PM said.

"The above-mentioned action of Azerbaijan is a provocation, especially in the conditions when the border delimitation and demarcation work between the two countries is still in the beginning phase. Azerbaijan's practice of putting up flags in various places voluntarily, and often with the use of force, is similar to an act of aborting border delimitation, and the peace process in general," Pashinyan said, adding that this was also seen in the interview of the president of Azerbaijan to Euronews the previous day.

"Declaring that as if Azerbaijan has no territorial demands from Armenia, the president of Azerbaijan says that the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan have not been determined. The borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan were determined by the Almaty declaration of 1991, and this was reaffirmed by the results of the quadrilateral meeting in Prague on October 6, 2022, where the Almaty declaration was accepted as the basis for border delimitation and demarcation between the two countries," the Armenian premier said.

"There is the impression that Azerbaijan's plan is as follows: To sign a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan with provisions that leave room for disputing the border specified by the Almaty declaration, and later to present territorial claims to Armenia in the process of border delimitation and demarcation," Pashinyan added.

"If the issue of the territories between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not decided, the matter of what territories does Azerbaijan raise in various parts of the border? If such a matter is raised, then the borders have been decided, and Armenia's proposal for a simultaneous withdrawal of troops from that border line remains valid,"  announced the PM.