Details added: first version posted on 14:46
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 17. The Azerbaijani Parliament's working groups and committees on inter-parliamentary and international relations sent letters to foreign Parliaments regarding the peaceful protests on the Shusha-Lachin road, the Parliament told Trend.
According to the letters, the peaceful protests were launched by representatives of civil society and environmental activists of Azerbaijan in response to the illegal exploitation of natural resources by Armenia in the Azerbaijani territories where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporary deployed [in accordance with trilateral statement signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war] and their transportation to Armenia along the Lachin road.
The letters indicated inaccessibility of representatives of the relevant Azerbaijani state structures to the territory of illegally exploited mineral deposits for the monitoring as another reason for the peaceful protests.
Stressing the groundlessness of the claims of the Armenian side, the letters noted that the restrictions on the Lachin road were introduced not by the Azerbaijani protesters, but by the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
The purpose of the peaceful protest rally is not to close the road, but to prevent the illegal transportation of looted natural resources. This rally does not prevent the movement of civilian vehicles, the letters said.
Besides, the letters emphasized that Armenia, flagrantly violating the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, continues illegal activities, using the Lachin road for military purposes, in particular for transporting mines and looted natural resources, thereby violating its commitments to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, taken at the meetings in Prague and Sochi.