Hayastan and Pativ Unem said they are particularly concerned about the situation in Stepanakert and other areas of the region that for days have been left without natural gas supplies from Armenia following reported damage on the main pipeline passing via Azeri-controlled territory.
The situation affects both businesses and ordinary residents in Nagorno-Karabakh some of whom have to fall back on firewood for heating amid still freezing temperatures.
Hayastan lawmaker Aram Vardevanian said it is important that Armenia adequately respond to what he described as a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Since March 8, thousands of our compatriots in Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] have been deprived of the possibility of heating their homes [with natural gas]. Even hospitals have been left without heating. I was in Artsakh a few days ago, and I saw with my own eyes how, for example, in a children’s hospital where there are more than 40 patients there is no heating,” the opposition lawmaker said.
For an urgent discussion on a particular issue its initiators are required to enlist the support of a quarter of lawmakers. The two opposition factions together are able to collected the required number of signatures.
Hayastan and Pativ Unem said they want the sitting to be held on March 22 and have already invited Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian to attend it as co-rapporteurs from the government. The opposition factions said they have not received a response from the ruling faction on whether its members will participate in the discussion or not.
The opposition has designated Tigran Abrahamian, a member of Pativ Unem, as the keynote speaker during the discussion.
“Artsakh is in crisis. We see a problem not only in the current situation. It is obvious that Azerbaijan will also have the opportunity in the future – something that it has already shown – to use these tools to influence our compatriots living in Artsakh and extort concessions on issues related to Artsakh and Armenia. Officials who are related to this humanitarian situation in socio-economic or infrastructural terms or should have been in contact with relevant bodies of Artsakh should also provide an explanation about what steps they had taken to prevent such a situation,” Abrahamian said.
The pipeline supplying gas from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh was damaged at a section passing near Shushi (Susa), a town that has been controlled by Azerbaijan after a 2020 war in the region.
De-facto authorities in Stepanakert accused Azerbaijan of not allowing ethnic Armenian maintenance workers to approach and repair the damaged pipeline to restore gas supplies vital for the region.
The lack of natural gas has, in particular, created problems for the work of bakeries in Nagorno-Karabakh. Power outages are also frequent in the region as the local grid has to work at its maximum capacity. Ethnic Armenian authorities suspended classes in schools on Monday because of the absence of heating in classrooms.
Officials in Stepanakert said on Wednesday that following negotiations held with the assistance of the Armenian government and Russian peacekeepers Azerbaijan today began repairing the damaged section of the gas pipeline. They said that gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh would be restored shortly.
Ahead of his two-day visit to Armenia earlier this week the European Union’s special representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar said that Brussels was concerned over the disruption of natural gas supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh as well as the latest shootings in the region. The European diplomat said these issues would “certainly be on the agenda” of his meetings in Yerevan.
“Obviously, these developments are of concern to the EU. It would be essential that the gas pipeline is repaired as soon as possible and that the shootings stop,” Klaar said.