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Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan issued a statement following the blockade of the Artsakh-Armenia road by a group of Azerbaijanis on Monday. His full statement is provided below.

"Dear compatriots,

It’s the second time Azerbaijan blocks the only highway connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the outer world for false and fictitious reasons.

First of all, such an aggressive behaviour of Azerbaijan by means of which it terrorizes our citizens and jeopardizes our vital rights and interests, is extremely unacceptable for us. This is an unprecedented challenge for our state and people and I call upon our society to consolidate and stay calm as one of the goals of the Azerbaijani authorities is to incite internal dissidence and panic in Artsakh.

The authorities and people of Artsakh have precise values, principles and red lines, for the protection of which we exert and will continue to exert all the efforts possible, which are sometimes invisible.

We are sure that the Russian peacekeeping troops, as a guarantor of the security of our people and the road, will apply all the mechanisms to prevent such provocations and violations of agreements directed against the vital rights and interests of our people.

Other actors of the international community also have important work to do as the actions of the Azerbaijani side grossly violate the well-known norms of the international law, while Azerbaijan strives for ethnic cleansing and expatriation of Artsakh’s population.

Artsakh has been and will remain Armenian through our united and determined efforts notwithstanding all the challenges."