Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today that the fears that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh are becoming substantiated.

He stated this during the 4th Global Forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” held in Yerevan.

“Today as well, the threat and danger of genocide in our region is considered a phenomenon that needs to be urgently prevented. Recently, more and more the population of Nagorno-Karabakh alarms about the threat of genocide. We should take those alerts seriously.

The November 9 trilateral statement seemed to have set mechanisms to protect the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians from potential genocide, but later we saw realities that make the voiced concerns more substantiated,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

He said that the provocations taking place in Lachin corridor are directly related to possible genocide.

“Some are trying to take parallels between Lachin corridor and existing or possible communications in the region. Lachin corridor is a genocide prevention corridor: closing it, stopping the operation of that corridor, means to condemn the population of Nagorno-Karabakh to genocide in three scenarios,” he said.

Pashinyan said the first scenario is pure depopulation of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, depriving them of the opportunity to live in their homes, on their land.

“The next scenario is the loss of identity: the struggle that Azerbaijan is waging against Nagorno- Karabakh place names, historical and cultural monuments is the clearest proof of this. The third scenario is the actual physical annihilation that we saw and see now,” he said.

Armenia’s PM stated that, in his opinion, “the main tool for the prevention of genocide is dialogue and cooperation, including between Baku and Stepanakert.”