Armenia today called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the “deteriorating humanitarian situation” in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been under blockade by Azerbaijan for months.

The two former Soviet republics of the Caucasus have been embroiled in two wars over control of the disputed enclave, which is internationally recognized as part of Azeri territory but inhabited mainly by Armenians. In the most recent war, which raged for six weeks in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured territory controlled by Armenia for decades.

Efforts to normalize Baku-Yerevan relations, mediated by the EU, the US and Russia, are encountering difficulties.

Tensions have escalated again since early July, when Baku closed the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian territory, under various pretexts.

The Azeri blockade is causing an increasingly serious humanitarian crisis in the predominantly Armenian enclave: food and medicine shortages and frequent power outages.

Armenia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Mer Margarian, in a letter to the Security Council underlined that there is a “severe shortage” of food, medicine and fuel in the enclave.

He spoke of interruptions in the supply of electricity and natural gas there.

“This situation has led to an increase in mortality due to disease,” especially for residents suffering from diabetes and cardiovascular disease, Margarian pointed out.

“The population of Nagorno-Karabakh is today on the brink of a real humanitarian disaster,” he said.

He accused Baku of “deliberately creating unbearable living conditions for the population” of the enclave, an “act of mass atrocity” intended to force residents to flee their homes.

“The government of Armenia requests the intervention of the United Nations Security Council as the main body to ensure global security,” the Armenian official concluded.