There is no 'blockade' of the Lachin-Khankendi road by the Azerbaijani side, and hundreds of vehicles traveling along it prove that, Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK, said in broadcast Times Radio of News UK, AzVision.az reports.
According to Suleymanov, just over the last week, 400 vehicles of Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have driven along the Lachin-Khankendi road without any obstacles.
“From the beginning of the protest on December 12 until January 29, 13,080 vehicles in total traveled back and forth from Khankendi to Armenia. So, there is no humanitarian crisis per se. At no point no one has prevented any civilian Armenians from traveling to Armenia. The protesters just insist on checking, what is inside the trucks. Azerbaijan itself has offered to provide food and medication, whatever is needed. At the end of the day, we consider Armenians living in Karabakh as our citizens. Separatists in Khankendi themselves are preventing people from leaving. Just to create an image of the crisis. Ruben Vardanyan, Russian billionaire, who was transferred to Karabakh, and is causing much trouble for both Azerbaijan and Armenia, is preventing the peace process,” Suleymanov explained.
The ambassador noted that the trilateral statement signed between the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia implied that the road would be used only for humanitarian purposes.
“However, Armenian have been taking advantage of this right and passed along weapons, military equipment, and landmines. Those landmines Azerbaijan found on its territory after the second Karabakh war, which ended in 2020, were produced in 2021,” he pointed out.
Suleymanov concluded by saying that Azerbaijan has never wanted Armenians of Karabakh to leave, and, once again, noted that Azerbaijan considers them as its citizens and that causing another armed conflict in the region is the last thing that is needed.
Meanwhile, peaceful protest on the Lachin-Khankendi road against the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's mineral resources in the area of Russian peacekeepers' temporary deployment has been going for over 60 days.
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