WATCH VIDEOS
Protesters say a blockade in Armenia is causing food and fuel shortages and creating a humanitarian crisis.
Dozens of Armenian-American protesters gathered at Getty House on Tuesday night hoping to raise awareness about the ongoing blockade that cuts a major highway linking Armenia to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Dozens of Armenian-American protesters rallied Tuesday night at Getty House in hopes of raising awareness of the ongoing blockade that cuts a major highway linking Armenia to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The organization brought a semi-trailer with a giant sign that read, “Air transport now!”across from the Windsor Square house, which is the office of the mayor of Los Angeles.
AIR7 HD about the protest and captured protesters turning on their cell phones and pointing them at the sky.
Protesters said the blockade causes shortages of food, medicine and fuel and creates a humanitarian crisis that requires foreign intervention.
Last week, a slew of opposition supporters piled up in the Armenian capital, urging the government to act to unblock the path after weeks of emerging tension.
The protesters suggested the Yerevan leadership “take appropriate measures” for the reopening of the so-called Lachin corridor, the only home address for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been blocked by crowds from neighboring Azerbaijan since Dec. 21.
The Azeri government said Tuesday that protests would be suspended if observers won what Azerbaijan calls illegal mining sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is located in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces subsidized through Yerevan since the end of a separatist war in 1994. This confrontation left not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also huge tracts of surrounding land in Armenian hands.
In 44 days of heavy fighting that began in September 2020, Azerbaijan’s army defeated Armenian forces and pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to settle for a Russian-brokered peace deal that came into force in November of that year.
The agreement provided for the return to Azerbaijan of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and also forced Armenia to cede tracts of land it had outside the breakaway region.
Lachin province, located between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, the last of the 3 border spaces with Nagorno-Karabakh to be handed over by Armenian forces in December 2020.
Russia has deployed around 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to ensure transit through the region, monitor the peace deal and assist in the return of refugees.
Armenian protesters called on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government “not to shift full responsibility” for resolving the issue to Russian forces, who have been locked in a standoff with the Azerbaijani crowd for more than two weeks, and face strong complaints in Yerevan over their allegedly insufficient response. .
“It is transparent that the Lachin room is a domain of duty of the Russian peacekeepers, and they will have to fulfill their duties. But this does not mean that the Armenian government stands idly by,” said Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an Armenian parliamentarian from the Socialist Party. Dashnaktsutyun Party, he told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
Pashinyan reaffirmed Yerevan’s official position on Tuesday, saying that under recent agreements between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, the direction of the source deserves to remain under the control of Russian peacekeepers, with Baku ensuring unhindered shipment along it. Previously, Nikol Pashinyan had continuously accused Moscow’s peacekeepers of failing to shoulder their responsibilities, which the Kremlin has denied.
Vale Gasparyan, one of the leaders of Armenia’s pro-Western multi-party National Democratic Pole, said Wednesday in a live video posted on social media that a blockade will be imposed on a Russian army base in northern Armenia unless the Lachin room is reopened.
Ethnic Armenian leaders in the separatist territory claim the blockade was orchestrated through the Azerbaijani government. Baku denies this, saying the protests in the Lachin region are “authentic” and “justified. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Crenshaw can get a new Costco with 800 residential complexes above
P-81 Puma found dead in PCH, probably pierced by vehicle
ABC7 says goodbye at 11 p. m. long. manufacturer Brilliant Tracy