The illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor by the Azerbaijani side has been continuing for 25 days now. This was announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government.

"This operation, which caused a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)], has caused a wide international reaction of calls to unblock the corridor. Despite that, Azerbaijan is not taking any steps to settle the issue. By closing the Lachin corridor, Azerbaijan grossly violates the direct commitment it made in the tripartite statement of November 9, [2020], which raises serious questions about the contractual capacity of official Baku. At the same time, Azerbaijan is trying to attribute to Armenia a practice of not fulfilling its obligations, which is completely fictitious.

It is also important to record that various reasons are given regarding the closure of the Lachin corridor. But, in my conviction, the most profound and real reason is that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh continue to live in their homeland, and the international community has begun to more and more clearly record the visible policy of Azerbaijan to subject the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to ethnic cleansing, genocide. In this sense, we expect more substantive steps from the international community, including the permanent member of the UN Security Council, the Russian Federation, whose peacekeeping contingent is stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh and keeping the Lachin corridor under its own control is its direct obligation," Pashinyan emphasized.