Freedom House says Azerbaijan must prevent humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

YEREVAN, March 24, /ARKA/. The Freedom House human rights organization said that Azerbaijan must prevent a humanitarian crisis in Karabakh.

'Azerbaijan must prevent a humanitarian crisis by restoring unhindered gas supplies to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, who have endured weeks of freezing temps without heat or hot water,' the organization tweeted.

Jean-Christophe Buisson, deputy director of the French magazine Le Figaro, said Azerbaijan's actions against Artsakh people were "a crime against humanity'.

The day before, Georgi Gogia, the Human Rights Watch associate director for Europe and Central Asia Division, called for urgent steps to avoid humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"For the second time in two weeks, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are left without heating in freezing temperatures because of a gas pipeline running through Azerbaijan-controlled territory. Many bakeries are also unable to operate causing an acute shortage of bread,' he tweeted.

He says the gas cut also affects educational institutions, including kindergartens and schools. They remain closed as they cannot be heated.

'Urgent steps are needed to avoid further humanitarian crisis,' he says. Georgi Gogia also says that recent weeks have also seen an uptick of violence on the line of contact. 'If this is a deliberate attempt at forcing population displacement that would be a breach of Geneva conventions,' he says.

Peter Stano, official representative of the European Union External Action Service, called on Azerbaijan to restore the gas supply to Artsakh residents.

In a statement issued on March 22 Nagorno-Karabakh human rights defender Gegham Stepanyan drew the attention of international human rights organizations and European officials, including EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic, to the humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Mr. Toivo Klaar, with the "active participation" of the Azerbaijani leadership Artsakh is again deprived of natural gas supply. We look forward to your reaction in the near future. Mrs. Dunja Mijatović, are you still interested in human rights?", Stepanyan wrote on Twitter.

Natural gas supply to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was cut off again on March 21. The supply to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia was first disrupted on March 8 due to damage to a pipeline passing through Azerbaijan-controlled territory near the town of Shushi. -0-