Vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Armenian ambulances are passing freely through the Lachin road contrary to the misinformation on the “blockade”, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizade said on Twitter on December 19, Trend reports.
According to Hajizade, such cases of passing through the road repeat several times each day.
“Claims about the blockade are fake news," he noted.
Previously, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appealed to Azerbaijan over moving a patient from Khankandi to Armenia, accompanied by a doctor and a nurse. Participants of the peaceful rally created conditions for the unhindered passage of ICRC vehicles on the road from Khankandi in the direction of Lachin.
Today, a humanitarian car and an ICRC ambulance, a car with family members of one of the Russian peacekeepers, as well as more than 10 supply vehicles belonging to Russian peacekeepers, passed freely through the area.
Representatives of Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been protesting near Shusha, close to the Russian peacekeepers' temporary deployment area. A peaceful protest is being held against the inadmissibility of Azerbaijani specialists to the territory, to monitor the illicit exploitation of the country's mineral resources.
Previously, following the talks with the Russian peacekeepers' command on December 3 and 7, 2022, a group of experts from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Property Service under the Ministry of Economy, and AzerGold CJSC were going to begin preliminary monitoring of the illicit mineral resource exploitation, as well as emerging environmental implications on Azerbaijani lands, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed, on December 10, 2022.
The expert team was expected to inspect the environmental condition at the 'Gizilbulagh' gold deposit and the 'Damirli' copper-molybdenum deposit, monitor various areas, organize cadastral property records, assess potential risks and threats to the environment, as well as to underground and surface water sources.
However, when arriving in the monitoring area, the expert group, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, faced provocations. The planned initial inspection and monitoring did not take place due to the fact that the Russian peacekeepers not only did not create necessary conditions but also prevented for the entire process to carry on.
