Six hours after it was cut off by Baku, the pipeline supplying Nagorno-Karabakh with natural gas from Armenia and passing through territory controlled by Azerbaijan has resumed operations, authorities in the Armenian-populated breakaway region announced.
The authorities in Stepanakert reiterated on Tuesday accusations that Azerbaijan is blocking gas supplies for the third time in recent months, adding that local gas operator Artsakhgas is making technical preparations to resume supplies to households in the region.
Previously the gas supplies were disrupted on December 13, one day after Azerbaijani protesters closed the only road connecting the region to Armenia and were restored three days later.
Baku has denied the accusations despite supporting for more than a month the protesters that have been blocking Nagorno-Karabakh’s land connection with Armenia.
It has previously dismissed similar calls from the United States, the European Union, and Russia which have repeatedly urged the Azerbaijani side to unblock the Lachin Corridor, defending Azerbaijani protesters which, according to Baku, have justified demands.
Meanwhile, an aide to the Nagorno-Karabakh Prime Minister Ruben Vardanyan wrote on Facebook that Azerbaijan is continuing its actions aimed at ethnically cleansing the region that Armenians call Artsakh.
In his efforts to deal with the economic and other consequences of the continuing blockade of the region, Vardanyan held an emergency meeting in Stepanakert with the Karabakh task force dealing with these issues during which officials were instructed to find alternative ways to enable uninterrupted operation of vital facilities and meeting the minimum needs of the population of the region.
