“People here are strong-willed and stubborn; they will never give in to pressure,” he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but is a disputed territory subject to peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
In 2020, a war broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding region. The result was a trilateral ceasefire agreement between Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia, which compelled Armenia to return all the remaining occupied territories surrounding Nagorono-Karabakh and stated that “the Republic of Azerbaijan shall guarantee the safety of traffic of citizens, vehicles, and goods along the Lachin corridor in both directions.”
“Currently the situation is hard, but we try to keep it under control, stay strong and endure as long as it’s possible until international calls and pressure bring tangible results forcing Azerbaijan to implement its obligations, which are fixed in international conventions and November 9th trilateral statement back in 2020,” Vardanyan explained.
“Azerbaijan has a duty not to create any obstacles to the connection between Artsakh and Armenia, but they probably think that international law norms can be ignored,” he said.
“They never faced the consequences for initiating an aggressive war against Artsakh in 2020. Thus they feel that, in flagrant violation of the UN Charter, by using force or the threat of force, they can obtain their goals,” he went on.
“With the support of the entire international community, we need to put more pressure on Azerbaijan, because we can’t put in danger the lives of 120,000 people. We have 30,000 kids living in Artsakh, who have the right to have a normal, peaceful life.”
AC Wimmer contributed to the report.
Madeleine is the former associate editor of the Catholic Herald. She has contributed to Sky News, BBC News, Woman’s Hour, Beyond Belief and many other programmes. She is also a regular Pause For Thought contributor on BBC Radio 2.
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