During Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan referred to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting from the Lachin Corridor's closure, and the activities on the next phase of the draft peace treaty with Azerbaijan. 

Referring to the blockade of the Lachin corridor, Nikol Pashinyan expressed concern over the worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that an environmental crisis is emerging in parallel because the Karabakh population has to use timber for heating and other household needs, for which forest trees are cut down.

“This is, in fact, undeniable proof that the environmental motives behind the blockade of the Lachin Corridor are fictitious, and Azerbaijan's actions have a purpose of completing the policy of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh,” he outlined. 

Pashinyan also mentioned that the government completed the work on the next phase of the draft peace treaty and establishing relations with Azerbaijan, and the proposals were forwarded to the Azerbaijani side. The draft document was also conveyed to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries. 

“We work on the document with this logic: to get a document that we are ready to sign at any moment. This document should be acceptable to Azerbaijan as well, we hope that it will be possible to develop certain progress observed as a result of three phases of negotiations,” the Armenian PM added. 

Nikol Pashinyan noted that the document should contain an effective system of checks and balances, excluding any disruption of lasting and stable peace. 

“This is the commitment of our government and myself to sign such a treaty as soon as possible. I am ready to take and bear such responsibility,” Pashinyan concluded.

Response from Azerbaijan

Aykhan Hajizada, the Spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, stated that such manipulations of the Armenian side, which hinder the negotiation process on the peace agreement, demonstrate once again that Armenia is not interested in peace in the region, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.

"In the process of negotiations on the peace agreement, Armenia's initiative to create an international mechanism for the rights and security of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and efforts to include a provision on this in the draft bilateral peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia are completely groundless and such attempts will not have any results," the report added.

"These efforts show that Armenia has not yet given up its territorial claims against Azerbaijan, contrary to the norms and principles of international law, as well as the Prague and Sochi agreements, where the countries mutually recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. We would like to remind once again that Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan. The rights and security of the population of Armenian origin living in this region will be ensured by the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan," it stated.

"It is unacceptable for Armenia to interfere in the reintegration process of Armenian residents, which is an internal issue of Azerbaijan," the information concluded.