State of Martial Law Declared in Artsakh as Azerbaijani Aggressions Continue

STEPANAKERT — On March 26, President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan signed a decree on temporary restrictions on rights and freedoms in the state of martial law declared in the territory of the Artsakh Republic.

Pursuant to the decree, during the term of martial law declared in the territory of the Artsakh Republic, under the statutory procedure:

1. the right to freedom of assembly is restricted;

2. strikes and other arrangements terminating or suspending the activities of organizations are prohibited;

3. activities of organizations, engaged in propaganda or other actions spearheaded against the defense capacity and security of the Artsakh Republic are suspended.

The responsibility for ensuring the application of temporary restrictions on the rights and freedoms defined by this decree rests on the Artsakh Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Security Service.

Fighting continued in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, with military authorities in Stepanakert accusing Azerbaijani forces of trying to push deeper into Karabakh’s eastern Askeran district.

The Karabakh Armenian army said that its troops are “taking appropriate measures to stop the enemy’s advance.” It said it is also working with the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in the Armenian-populated territory to try to stop the hostilities.

The Karabakh state minister, Artak Beglaryan, spoke later in the afternoon of an unsuccessful Azerbaijani attack on one of the Karabakh Armenian positions in the area.

Armenian officials have said that they expect the 2,000 or so Russian peacekeepers to do more to ensure Baku’s compliance with the ceasefire regime and withdrawal from the village of Parukh.

According to Beglaryan, the Russian peacekeepers are maintaining their presence in Parukh as well as the nearby village of Khramort. They have made “considerable efforts” to prevent further ceasefire violations, said the Karabakh official.

Earlier on Saturday, Karabakh’s leadership announced that it has appealed to Putin to deploy more Russian soldiers in Karabakh. It said that the existing peacekeeping contingent is too small to carry out its mission in the current circumstances.

The Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Karabakh under the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020.