The trilateral meeting in Brussels with the President of the European Council and the President of Azerbaijan, unfortunately, did not yield any concrete results in terms of opening the Lachin Corridor connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a government meeting on Thursday, July 20.

Pashinyan said the meeting did not contribute to overcoming the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh either.

“In his statement following the meeting, the President of the European Council emphasized the need to open the Lachin Corridor, as well as the need to address the rights and security agenda of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians through dialogue between Stepanakert and Baku,” the Prime Minister said.

“Our belief was and continues to be that without international involvement and mechanisms, this dialogue cannot be effective, at least because Baku continues its aggressive and threatening rhetoric towards the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, whose ultimate goal, in our estimation, is the implementation of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now it is not a theoretical claim, but a concrete plan being implemented by illegally blocking the Lachin Corridor, the direct manifestation of which is the complete lack of supply of electricity, natural gas, food and other essential goods to Nagorno Karabakh, in order to make it impossible for Armenians to live in Nagorno Karabakh. It is regrettable to emphasize that the legally binding decisions of the International Court of Justice of February 22 and July 6, obliging Azerbaijan to open the Lachin Corridor, have not been implemented to date. However, we must continue working in this direction. It is also necessary to carry out efforts to cover the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh as widely as possible in the international press.”