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    Categories: 2023

Rally against nine-month Armenian blockade held in Uptown Waterloo (Canada)

iHeartRadio, Canada
Sept 3 2023


A group gathered in Uptown Waterloo Saturday to bring attention to the nine-month supply blockade in Armenia.

The blockade has been happening in a separatist region of the country and is home to roughly 120,000 people.

"The only corridor between Armenia and Artsakh is being blocked by Azerbaijan," said Levon Sarmazian, chair of the Armenian National Committee of Southwestern Ontario.  "Currently there is a very big humanitarian crisis going on where there is no medicine, no food, and no transportation between those regions.

"We're hoping that the Canadian government can put pressure on Azerbaijan, which is a big player in the world with oil and trade. Hoping they can put pressure on them to open up the corridor and to stop this crisis from continuing."

Last month the Armenian UN Ambassador wrote a letter to the Security Council asking them to intervene. It came after the international criminal courts former chief prosecutor released a report warning, "there is a reasonable basis to believe that genocide is being committed."

Representatives for Azerbaijan have dismissed the report saying it, "contains unsubstantiated allegations."

The region was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia following the fall of the Russian empire.

It broke away in the early 1990s before Azerbaijan retook the area three years ago.

Janet Ekmekjian: