YEREVAN -- The ethnic Armenian leader of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutiunian, has issued an urgent appeal to the international community, asking for immediate action to lift a de facto blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and prevent what he called "the genocide of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh."
Both Armenia and separatist authorities in the enclave have said that Azerbaijan has blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh since December, resulting in shortages of food, medicine, and energy.
Yerevan and international aid groups have warned that a dire humanitarian situation has been unfolding in the breakaway Azerbaijani region with convoys of food and medicine blocked.
"With this urgent address I am signaling that right now the people of the Republic of Artsakh" -- ethnic Armenians' name for Nagorno-Karabakh -- "are being subjected to genocide and face a real threat of destruction and deprivation of their homeland," Harutiunian said in a video address published late on August 8.
WATCH: Armenian police detained more than a dozen protesters outside a government building in Yerevan on August 8 after they demanded authorities take steps to unblock the Lachin Corridor.
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Armenian Police Detain Protesters Demanding End Of Lachin Corridor Blockade
He said a humanitarian crisis had been created by what he described as a 240-day blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, charging that "in a situation like this manifestation of inaction or indifference is nothing but acquiescence in the crime of genocide."
Tensions escalated after Azerbaijan last month completely suspended traffic through the checkpoint pending an investigation after it said "various types of contraband" had been discovered in the Red Cross vehicles coming from Armenia. Access was previously blocked amid a series of protests and accusations emerging from Baku.
Azerbaijan says it can only allow supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh over a road from Agdam, a town controlled by Azerbaijan in the east of the region.
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh reject that offer, saying Azerbaijan's blockade is a violation of the Moscow-brokered 2020 cease-fire agreement that placed the 5-kilometer-wide strip of land under the control of Russian peacekeepers.
A delegation led by staff members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on August 8 visited the site in Armenia's southern Syunik Province where a 19-truck convoy of humanitarian aid has been stranded for two weeks.
"The international community must take effective personal and collective steps in order not to allow Azerbaijan to fill the history of mankind with another page of mass famine and genocide," said Harutiunian, the heavily ethnic Armenian region's de facto president.
He said Stepanakert called on Armenia to "immediately submit to the UN Security Council for discussion the humanitarian disaster that has emerged as a result of Azerbaijan's blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the illegal blockade" of Nagorno-Karabakh, and he urged Yerevan to be careful in its public statements and assessments of the situation.
He urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "to show moral and political responsibility and leadership, involving the entire UN system" on the issue.
Baku routinely brushes aside accusations of ethnic cleansing against Karabakh Armenians.
In 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of territories held by ethnic Armenian forces outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as a chunk of the former autonomous oblast itself.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly warned the local population to integrate into Azerbaijan or leave.
The United States and the European Union have urged Azerbaijan to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor.
A group of UN experts issued a statement on August 7, expressing alarm over the ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan, which they said had led to a dire humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"By lifting the blockade, the [Azerbaijani] authorities can alleviate the suffering of thousands of people in Nagorno-Karabakh and allow for the unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population," the experts said. "It is essential to ensure the safety, dignity, and well-being of all individuals during this critical time."
They also called on Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in the region to protect the corridor under the terms of the cease-fire agreement.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry criticized the UN experts for what it described as their biased statement that it claimed had been influenced by "Armenia's manipulations."