Gas supply cut off in Nagorno-Karabakh

Gas supply to the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has been cut off, adviser to the NKR State Minister Mesrop Arakelyan said on social networks.

“Gas supply to Artsakh has been stopped. Azerbaijan continues its actions to liquidate the Armenians,” he wrote.

The NKR receives gas from Armenia, but a section of the pipeline passes through territory controlled by Azerbaijan. As indicates Sputnik Armenia, in March there was an accident there, and Baku refused to provide access for its repair. It was soon repaired, but gas supply cuts continued, the last one happened on December 15th.

Since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan has blocked the Stepanakert-Goris highway in the Lachin corridor, the only transport artery that connects the NKR and Armenia. According to the Azerbaijani side, the pretext for blocking was the need to check the cargo for the export of gold from mines actually controlled by the NKR.

According to Yerevan, due to the blockage of the corridor, there was a shortage of essential goods, food and medicine.

On December 22, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan criticized the actions of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that it was not fulfilling its obligations. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin noted that the peacekeepers are doing everything possible to ensure order in Karabakh.

Against the backdrop of the blockade of the Lachin corridor, Yerevan refused to participate in the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan scheduled for December 23 in Moscow, and already in January – from holding exercises CSTO on the territory of the republic this year. On January 10, Pashinyan announced that Yerevan could initiate in the UN Security Council sending a multinational mission to the region.