Pashinyan speaks up about the severe situation in the Karabakh

The situation around  Nagorno-Karabakh has gotten serious in recent months, according to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who announced during a Cabinet meeting that the pipeline carrying natural gas to de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh authorities has been disrupted.

PM Pashinyan stated that he would not make any evaluations at this time since they are currently working with the de-facto Karabakh authorities and foreign partners to stabilise and resolve the situation.

"Let's not make judgments right now; let's just acknowledge that such a scenario exists and strive to solve the difficulties," Pashinyan remarked.

On the morning of March 9, sappers (military engineers with demining and machinery repair training) of the de facto State Emergency Service (SSES) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) began demining the area near the gas pipeline in the Shusha-Lachin section, which is under the control of Azerbaijan. After their completion, work will begin on the restoration of the gas pipeline, Hunan Tadevosyan, the de-facto head of the Public Relations Department of the State Emergency Service of the NKR Ministry of Internal Affairs, said.

“Negotiations (with the Azerbaijani side) with the participation of Russian peacekeepers seem to have yielded results, and now the sappers are already in place to carry out mine clearance work,” he said, adding that only after that it will be possible to proceed with the restoration work on the gas pipeline.

Earlier, the Artsakhgas company reported that because of an accident that occurred on the night of March 8, the main gas pipeline from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh was damaged. Later, the de facto Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of NKR issued a statement stating that Azerbaijan was preventing the start of repair work on the damaged section of the pipeline near one of the combat positions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

European Parliament condemns Baku’s “systematic destruction” of Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

The European Parliament passed a resolution sharply condemning Baku's deliberate destruction of Armenian cultural assets in Karabakh. Members of the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of perpetrating cultural genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh during the debate on the bill.

The resolution, which received 635 votes in favour, 2 votes against, and 42 abstentions, further underscores that Baku's actions are in contravention of international law and a recent International Court of Justice judgement.

According to the European Parliament resolution, Azerbaijan has irreversibly devastated religious and cultural heritage during the last 30 years, particularly in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, where 89 Armenian churches, 20,000 graves, and more than 5,000 tombstones have been demolished.

The resolution emphasises that the removal of traces of Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh is done not only to damage or destroy it, but also to falsify history by portraying it as the so-called Caucasian-Albanian region, stating that on February 3, 2022, Minister Anar Karimov announced the formation of a working group to remove "traces invented by Armenians on Albanian religious temples."

The resolution acknowledges that the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage is part of a larger systemic, "state-level policy of anti-Armenianism and anti-Armenian hatred promoted by the Azerbaijani authorities, which includes the glorification of violence, anti-humanism, and territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia", posing a threat to peace and security in the South Caucasus.

The resolution demands on Azerbaijan to abandon its maximalist aspirations, aggressive practises, and territorial claims to Armenia, and to participate in good faith in the OSCE Minsk Group discussions on the ultimate status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The resolution urges Azerbaijan to fully comply with the International Court of Justice's interim order, which states that Azerbaijan must "refrain from suppressing the Armenian language, destroying Armenian cultural heritage, or eliminating the historical Armenian cultural presence by other means, or restricting the entry of Armenians to those sites," and that any new case of cultural heritage destruction or alteration must be reported to the international community immediately.

It urges the European Commission to employ all possible tools to prevent the destruction and modification of Nagorno-Karabakh's heritage, as well as vandalism.