“They include persons subject to immediate evacuation, who are suffering from oncological and cardiovascular diseases,” Angelina Isakhanian, a spokeswoman for the Karabakh health ministry, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “They need to be evacuated in order to promptly receive proper medical treatment and avoid further complications.”
Such medical evacuations were carried out only by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) after Azerbaijan stopped last December commercial traffic though the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Baku blocked them on June 15 following a shootout near an Azerbaijani checkpoint that was controversially set up in the corridor in late April.
“There has been no progress so far,” said Eteri Musayelian, a spokeswoman for the ICRC office in Stepanakert. “We remain in touch will all decision makers, monitor the situation and hope to resume our movements through the Lachin corridor as soon as the situation allows.”
The tightening of the blockade also aggravated the shortages of food, medicine and other essential items experienced by Karabakh’s population for the last seven months. The authorities in Stepanakert said on Monday that local hospitals have suspended non-urgent surgeries due to the lack of drugs and other medical supplies.
Armenia’s Health Minister Anahit Avanesian said on Thursday said health officials in Yerevan are “in daily contact” with their Karabakh colleagues to try to help them cope with the worsening crisis. The Armenian government is also keeping its “international partners” posted about the situation in Karabakh, she said.