Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, in a January 5 talk with Sveriges Radio (Sweden's publicly funded radio broadcaster,) said he wants the international community to organize a humanitarian airlift to bring food and other essential products to Artsakh.

Vardanyan refuted Baku’s claims that the people who have blocked the Lachin Corridor for the past three weeks are civilian eco-activists.

“How many environmental protests have taken place in Azerbaijan in the last decade?” Vardanyan asked, adding that nothing happens in Azerbaijan without the permission of the Aliyev regime.

Vardanyan told the Swedish broadcaster that Baku’s main goal is to empty Artsakh of its Armenian population.

Vardanyan, in a talk with the British Byline Times newspaper, described the shortages in Artsakh resulting from the Lachin Corridor closure.

“Twenty-four days we are into this blockade. We get a little bit of food from the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers. But in reality, we don’t have basic foodstuffs. No fruit, no vegetables. We have a little grain and meat and some milk. Other things do not exist anymore. No cigarettes,” Vardanyan told the Byline Times reporter by Zoom.

Vardanyan then lamented the fact that he will not be able to celebrate Christmas with his wife and four children.

“For the first time in my life I am apart from my family at Christmas. Basically, we are hostage to Azerbaijan while we can’t get access to the road.”

Vardanyan urged the international community to impose sanctions if Azerbaijan persisted with the blockade.