With Nagorno-Karabakh under blockade for 8 months, Armenia seeks urgent UN Security Council meeting

By AVET DEMOURIAN

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia is calling on the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the worsening humanitarian situation in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is mostly populated by Armenians. Azerbaijan has blockaded the region since December, severely restricting food, medicine and other supplies from reaching the population of about 120,000 people. In his letter on Friday to the Security Council, Armenian U.N. ambassador Mher Margaryan said the people of Nagorno-Karabakh were “on the verge of a full-fledged humanitarian catastrophe.” Last week, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned that Azerbaijan was preparing genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh and called for the U.N. Security Council to bring the matter before the international tribunal.