PACE calls on Artsakh authorities to cease using water resources “as tools of political influence or an instrument of pressure”

PACE today narrowly voted not to adopt a resolution on “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan”, based on a report by British former PACE member Robert Walter.

Following a debate, the draft text – which called on Armenia to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the Minsk process – was rejected by 70 votes against, 66 in favor, and 45 abstentions.

The other resolution, which passed, stated that inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water.

“The lack of regular maintenance work for over 20 years on the Sarsang reservoir, located in one of the areas of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia, poses a danger to the whole border region,” the PACE website reads.

“In view of this urgent humanitarian problem, the Assembly requested ‘the immediate withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the region concerned’, thus allowing access by independent engineers and hydrologists to carry out a detailed on-the-spot survey and international supervision of the irrigation canals, the state of the Sarsang and Madagiz dams, the schedule of water releases during the autumn and winter, and aquifer overexploitation,” states the PACE website.