At the start of the government sitting, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed that Azerbaijan's illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which began 60 days ago, caused an environmental crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, in addition to a humanitarian crisis.
"Yesterday, Azerbaijan again closed the gas supply pipeline to NK, while the gas supply was restored a day ago. Before that, Azerbaijan opened the pipeline seven days ago and closed it four days before that. Since December 12, Azerbaijan has stopped gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh seven times. These statistics do not show the whole picture, because different events occur between gas supply interruptions and restorations. For example, the gas supply is interrupted not completely, but by 50 percent, then the volume of gas supply reaches 70 percent, then drops to ten percent, the next moment it becomes 30 percent, then fully recovered, and so on. Such fluctuations can occur several times a day or every few days. Moreover, this is no longer "environmentalists", but a state action", said Pashinyan.
The Prime Minister noted that since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan has carried out about 27 similar operations with the pipeline supplying gas to Nagorno-Karabakh.
He added that Azerbaijan's illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which has an "environmental" guise, caused real environmental problems in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"As you know, Azerbaijan has blocked the supply of electricity to Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the local capacity to produce electricity is not enough, the NK authorities have to carry out fan shutdowns for six, eight, ten hours a day. Under these conditions, our compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh are forced to use wood to heat their houses, which in turn leads to deforestation, which has the potential to turn into an environmental disaster", said Pashinyan.
