In an analytical article focusing on the Azerbaijani-imposed blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, RSC Director Richard Giragosian was cited by the “Financial Times” in an article published on 14 August by the insightful Polina Ivanova, and reprinted by the “Irish Times” newspaper on 20 August:
‘People feel let down by Russia’: disputed Caucasus enclave choked by blockade.
Warnings of humanitarian catastrophe in mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh, a region claimed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, now Russia is no longer capable of intervening.
This was “yet another example of Azerbaijan’s effective humiliation of Russia”, said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre, a think-tank in Yerevan. Russian peacekeepers, stationed just beside the checkpoint, “are increasingly embarrassed by their failure to uphold the terms of a Russian-crafted and Russian-imposed ceasefire”, he added.
Others see the escalating humanitarian situation as a way to trigger an exodus. It is “indirect ethnic cleansing”, said Giragosian, of the Regional Studies Center. “Not by bayonet, but rather by creating unbearable conditions.”