Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, at a cabinet session today, accused Baku of pursuing a policy of ethnically cleansing Karabakh of its Armenian population, pointing to the recent installation of a checkpoint along the Lachin Corridor as proof.

“But it is also important to record the real and deep purpose of this and several previous actions. That goal is the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and carrying out genocide, and this should be the subject of attention of all of us, the international community,” Pashinyan said according to a statement released by his office.

Pashinyan said Russian peacekeepers stationed in the region must regain full control of the roadway as guaranteed in the November 2020 tripartite ceasefire agreement.

“The rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh should become the subject of negotiations between Stepanakert and Baku, within the framework of the international format," he said.

Pashinyan called for the immediate dispatch of an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor and Karabakh to prevent further provocations by Azerbaijan.