Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today that with its actions Azerbaijan proved that it is behind the explosion of Artsakh gas pipeline.

During the cabinet sitting he reminded that the gas pipeline was blown up in the area under Azerbaijan’s control on March 7.

“Azerbaijan did not allow the repair of the gas pipeline under various pretexts. Eventually they repaired it. As a result, according to our information, a valve was installed on the gas pipeline. On March 18, the gas supply to Artsakh was restored for four days, and on March 21, Azerbaijan simply closed the pipeline valve without explosions, proving that it is behind the March 7 explosion.”

Nikol Pashinyan drew attention to the fact that the gas supply disruptions took place in exceptional weather conditions.

“Artsakh was deliberately deprived of the natural gas supply vital for heating apartments, kindergartens, schools and hospitals. This is enough to understand that as a result of Azerbaijan’s actions Artsakh appeared on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

He said that “I have no doubt that the heroic people of Artsakh will overcome this ordeal as well, but this in mind, it should be noted that Azerbaijan also provides service to the people of Artsakh with these actions, since this episode with the gas pipeline is a very accurate and concise description of the Artsakh issue for the international community.”

The Prime Minister said thanks to this episode, the international community can understand the essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict without flipping through hundreds of pages and studying the nuances of history.

“This indisputably shows Azerbaijan’s policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh, that is, to make it impossible for them to live in their own homeland. Azerbaijan has been hammering for a year and a half that it has gloriously won the war. But the fact that after so much suffering and deprivation, about 117,000 Armenians live in Artsakh right now, Azerbaijan considers its biggest defeat, and the task is to do everything to complete the policy of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh.

In this sense, the statement issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry the previous day that the issue of gas supply to Artsakh is Azerbaijan’s domestic affair, is very symbolic and eloquent. If to translate this statement from diplomatic language, it will mean “do not look this way and let us complete the policy of liberating Artsakh from Armenians through ethnic cleansing and genocidal policy freely and unnoticed by the international community or under the pretext of  “anti-terrorist operations”.

This can not happen and the Armenian diplomatic service, other officials, political forces, media, non-governmental organizations, individuals must present in detail to the international community what happened in Artsakh,” Pashinyan said.