BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 14. Non-governmental organizations operating in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic have appealed to the international community, Trend reports.
According to the appeal, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic has been living under a blockade for over 30 years. The appeal said that the local population remained without gas for nearly 15 years and even without electricity due to the blockade imposed by Armenia.
Moreover, according to the appeal, energy lines connecting Nakhchivan to the rest of Azerbaijan were cut off by Armenia, and the railway connection between Nakhchivan and Baku was severed in 1992 after the shelling of the last train that ran on it.
"The international community has not taken any steps to lift this blockade and has not exerted any pressure on Armenia in this regard," the appeal stated.
The NGOs noted that Armenia continues to regularly shell the population and settlements of Nakhchivan.
"If it weren't for the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, and his worthy successor, President Ilham Aliyev, Nakhchivan would have been occupied just like Karabakh. Contrary to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) requirements, Armenia is building a metallurgical plant in Arazdayan, an area bordering Sadarak," the appeal said. "This is a policy of environmental terrorism against the population of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The construction of an industrial heavy plant on the specified transboundary territory without the consent of the Azerbaijani government will lead to pollution of the environment with toxic waste and disruption of the ecosystem."
"Armenia does not adhere to the provisions of the trilateral statement signed on November 10, 2020, following the second Karabakh war, and takes no actions to open the Zangazur corridor. While we await consistent calls from the international community to Armenia regarding this matter, and sanctions against Armenia for this reason, the opposite is happening," the appeal said.
"Why have those who have been spreading one false statement after another, slander about "closure" of Lachin-Khankendi road, unfairly accusing the Azerbaijani state, never once raised the issue of the long-standing blockade of Nakhchivan?" the appeal authors emphasized.