Azerbaijan uses infrastructural vulnerability to terrorize and inflict additional suffering on the people of Artsakh under siege

According to the facts collected by the Ombudsman’s staff, on January 12, around 3:30 p.m., the Azerbaijani side deliberately cut the communication wires coming from the Republic of Armenia to Artsakh in the Shushi section (place of the blockage), disrupting the access to telecommunications and fixed Internet in the entire territory of Artsakh.

The Azerbaijani side deliberately paralyzes the work of vital infrastructures, taking advantage of the fact that they pass through the territories under Azerbaijani control. This is clearly evidenced by the disruptions of gas supply (March 2022, December 2022), the obstruction of repairs of high-voltage electric wires since January 9, and periodic disruptions of the Internet and mobile communication in the territory of Artsakh.

In the conditions of the complete blockade of Artsakh, this method of infrastructural intimidation aims to subject the civilian population of Artsakh to additional suffering and create unbearable human conditions in Artsakh.

Azerbaijan’s behavior is an insult to the agenda of human rights, humanitarian values, and civilization. States and international structures, and first of all the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, the RUSSIAN FEDERATION, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, and FRANCE, are obliged to put an end to Azerbaijani criminal permissiveness and impunity.