Armenian National Institute
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August 25, 2023
As a result of Azerbaijan's blockade of Artsakh for more than 8 months starting from December 12, 2022 and the complete blocking of humanitarian access starting from June 15, 2023, a severe humanitarian situation has been created in Artsakh. The resulting humanitarian crisis has deprived 120,000 people of vital supplies, including food, medicine, hygiene supplies, fuel and other vital goods.
This fact sheet. prepared based on the facts obtained during the fact-finding activities conducted by the Office of the Artsakh Ombudsman, presents the challenges related to the shortage of bread. This shortage deprives the population of bread supplies and puts them at an undeniable risk of malnutrition and starvation.
Anush, a mother of 4 minor children in the bread line: "This is simple unbearable. I had to stand in line since 4 in the morning, and only at 11:00 I managed to get only 2 loaves of bread for our family of 6. And this is pretty much the only meal that we will have during the entire day. As I work as an accountant at the office since 9:00 till 18:00, I have to skip the work, so I simply do not manage to organize my normal routine anymore."
Impossibility of importing flour from Armenia. Azerbaijan has continued to block humanitarian access to Artsakh since June 15, 2023, resulting in a complete suspension of flour supplies from Armenia, even through organizations like the ICRC and the Russian peacekeeping mission. With no new deliveries to Artsakh in the past two months, domestic flour stocks have quickly depleted. Before the blockade, 65% of Artsakh's flour, used for bakery products and confectioneries, was imported from the Republic of Armenia. Locally produced wheat served not only bread but also as widespread animal feed.
Local wheat production shortage and harvest-related problems. Deprived of the opportunity to import flour from the Republic of Armenia, bread-producing companies in Artsakh now rely solely on locally produced wheat for their operations. State data includes that, due to hail and drought, only 60-65% of the wheat fields in Artsakh were suitable for harvest, of which 70% have been harvested. Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani armed forces, located near these wheat fields, deliberately target machinery and equipment. As a result, many vehicles have been damaged and rendered unusable due to these military provocations. Given the ongoing threats from the Azerbaijani side, harvesting the remaining 30% of the wheat fields has become impossible.
Problems caused by fuel shortages. The acute fuel shortage severely disrupts the entire bread production cycle, affecting field harvesting, wheat transportation to flour miles, flour transportation to bakeries, and the delivery of bread to stores.
Impossibility of the sustainable and effective operation of flourmills. Due to a number of reasons, 30% of the total number of flourmills are not working during the blockade. The operation of flour mills is often hampered by electricity outages. During the day, the flour mills do not have electricity for at least six hours. Besides, the operating wheat mills often break down, as they now have to work wheat beyond their normal capacity. At the flour mills, the flour is produced from the wheat collected the level of humidity of the wheat is higher than required for the flour production. The flour production process is now accompanied with an additional drying work, which eventually slows down the entire bread production cycle and results in delays of the delivery of flour to the bakeries.
The bakeries are not able to bake the amount of bread corresponding to the demand of the population. The volume of bread production has significantly reduced. Only 70% of the bakeries still operate. Under the conditions of rolling blackouts, the constant lack of flour, absence of gas supply to bake the bread in the gas stoves and the shortages of water supplies, bakeries physically do not manage to produce the necessary quantity of bread to cover the demand of the population properly. Besides, the electric stoves often break down due to the rolling blackouts with no possibility of their proper repair or replacement, as the necessaey equipment is not being supplied to Artsakh.
Bread is not delivered to stores. As there is no fuel left in the country, the delivery of bread from the bakeries to the stores is no longer carried out. This results in long queues in front of the bakeries, often getting to 500-600 people queuing at a time. As there is no public transportation available in Artsakh either, people have to reach the bakeries by foot and queue directly there, which creates additional hardships for people, especially vulnerable groups - older persons, children, pregnant women, persons with disabilities.
Nune, a pregnant woman in the bread line: "My husband works all day long, so I have to stand in line for bread myself. I have to queue twice - to get a loaf of bread for my elderly parents, who are physically not able to stand in lines for hours, and a loaf of bread for our family of 4, including my 2 little ones. I am afraid that my labour will start in the queue, I am already 8 months pregnant. There is even no fuel and transport to get quickly to the hospital. Azerbaijan has just turned our life into a nightmare."
Bread is one of the few products that can still be domestically produced in Artsakh. With the disruption of its production, people of Artsakh find themselves one step closer to mass femine, total starvation and more deaths from hunger. The civilians are subjected to unbearable and unihumane conditions of living and excessive human sufferings, which eventually serve Azerbaijan's state end goal - ethnic deansing and genocide of the Armenians of Artsakh.