Statement in connection with the UN Security Council meeting

We welcome the meeting of the United Nations Security Council held on 16 August 2023, to discuss the humanitarian catastrophe that has emerged in the Republic of Artsakh as a result of the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan. We express gratitude to those countries that have remained faithful to the principles of international law and humanism, and emphasized in their statements the urgent need to unblock the Lachin Corridor and ensure the delivery of vital supplies to the population in need in Artsakh.

At the same time, it is disappointing that certain delegations attempted to find an illusory and highly risky balance between the aspirations of the people of Artsakh to live in their homeland in freedom, security and dignity, and Azerbaijan's ambition to forcefully subjugate and annihilate them. There can be no compromise between universal values of freedom, human dignity, peace and justice on one hand, and the extreme manifestations of systematic and large-scale human rights violations, carried out with the intent of the physical destruction of a people, on the other.

We expect that the member states of the United Nations Security Council will demonstrate consistency and а principled stance in preventing further criminal actions against the people of Artsakh, and will consolidate their position by adopting a resolution compelling Azerbaijan to lift the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor without any preconditions or linkages to alternative routes, in strict accordance with the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020 and the decisions of the International Court of Justice. Given Azerbaijan's evident genocidal intent, any attempts to hinder the efforts of the UN Security Council to end the inhumane siege and humanitarian catastrophe in Artsakh will be tantamount to silent approval, if not complicity in the crimes committed by Baku.