Nagorno Karabakh authorities are ready to collaborate with Azerbaijan and supply water. The spokesperson for the president of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Davit Babayan said this to CivilNet referring to an Instagram photo posted by Ambassador James Warlick, the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Ambassador Warlick had taken a photo of the Sarsang reservoir on his Instagram account and written: “Do you know where I am? I took this photo last year with the Co-Chairs. We need to ensure that the reservoir continues to provide safe reliable power to the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. It’s also important that the dam is safe and that those downstream in Azerbaijan have water when it is needed. Why can’t the sides cooperate when it is in their mutual interest? This is a win-win and we are ready to help.”
That which Ambassador Warlick has written, has been proposed several times by Nagorno Karabakh, both to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, as well as to Azerbaijan, Babayan said, however, the Azerbaijani side has always rejected it.
“We are also ready to provide the Azerbaijani side with water, we have been talking about it since 1998-99,” said Babayan adding that currently Nagorno Karabakh isn’t prepared to supply water from an economic point of view, but rather it would simply be a humanitarian approach aimed at strengthening mutual trust.
“But the opposite side refuses and furthermore, it is trying to manipulate the situation to show that the Sarsang reservoir is not secure, which is not true. They are playing a dark PR game. This is the problem. We are ready for mutual collaboration, that is supplying water and exchanging some goods, of course if the opposite side is ready for it. If not, then no. This is their problem,” David Babayan said.
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The Sarsang reservoir situated in Nagorno Karabakh was built in the 1970s for irrigation and energy purposes. The Sarsang hydropower station was built on the reservoir. Currently “Artsakh Hydropower station” JSC implements huge projects on the rivers flowing into the Sarsang reservoir. It operates six hydropower stations with 73 MW capacity overall. The major asset of the Artsakh Hydropower station OJSC is the Sarsang hydropower station. The main stakeholder of the company is the government of Nagorno Karabakh.
