The checkpoint along the Lachin Corrodium – photo by Elisa von Joeden-Forgey/ CC BY-SA 4.0
Despite recent diplomatic meetings Azerbaijan and Armenia are once again in a stalemate over the Lachin corridor, a 5km highway linking Armenia to Nagorno Karabakh. The blockade of this corridor by the Azeris is putting the inhabitants of Nagorno Karabakh in difficulty
Just two weeks after the EU-facilitated meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on 15 July in Brussels, Yerevan and Baku have once again found themselves in a stalemate on the issue of the Lachin corridor, a 5-kilometre highway linking Armenia and the former autonomous region of Nagorno Karabakh (NKAO) via Azerbaijani territory.
Since December 12 last year, the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh, inhabited mainly by Armenians, has been forced to deal with Baku’s actions aimed at blocking or limiting movement along the strategic artery that passes through the Lachin area, actions to be understood as an integral part of Azerbaijan’s continuous attempts to restore its territorial integrity, but also to see it recognized by both Yerevan and Stepanakert, the capital in fact of Nagorno-Karabakh. If the Armenian prime minister has said he is willing to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the authorities in fact of Karabakh continue to oppose.
Another critical point concerns the insistence of Yerevan, Brussels, Washington, and now also of Moscow, that the Armenian community of Karabakh and the Baku authorities start a direct dialogue. Stepanakert continues to show himself uncompromising also on this issue, while some unconfirmed information suggests that on 30 July Baku too refused to participate in a previously scheduled meeting which, apparently, should have been held today (August 1).
As a result, the Azerbaijani-imposed creation of a border and customs checkpoint at the beginning of the Lachin corridor has led to a severe shortage of food, hygiene products and fuels that are normally imported into Nagorno Karabakh. Meanwhile, periodic blockages of humanitarian aid convoys operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Russian peacekeeping contingent have resulted in a worrying shortage of medical supplies.
If until mid-June, in addition to the products grown on site, deliveries still arrived in Karabakh, albeit limited [di merci di vario tipo]now – despite the scarcity, if not the non-existence, of independent information which makes it difficult to fully understand the situation on the ground, and despite the fact that images of Stepanakert restaurants that operate without any restrictions (apart from the maximum of fifty people who can eat together) – warnings of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe appear credible.
Azerbaijani social media have also started to spread videos and images of Stepanakert restaurants, so much so that the region’s human rights ombudsman had to intervene by launching a message on social media inviting the Armenians of Karabakh to refrain from publishing the images of their night outings. “Videos posted on social networks […] that do not reflect the dire situation […] are readily used by the Azerbaijani propaganda machine,” reads the message, “please refrain from sharing videos associated with a life of luxury.”
Indeed it seems that [in Nagorno Karabakh] most shops and markets are poorly stocked, if not empty. The situation is aggravated by the shortage of fuel which makes it almost impossible to transport fresh produce from the villages to the urban centres. Furthermore, the bakeries, although they have not yet closed their doors, are now struggling to stock up on flour and then also to distribute the loaves.
Gurgen Nersisyan, Minister of State in fact del Nagorno Karabakh, he promised to engage in countering the disproportionate increase in prices and the black market that has inevitably emerged in the meantime. Also of increasing concern among the people of Karabakh is the possibility that Azerbaijan seeks to replace the Lachin Corridor, as stipulated in the November 2020 trilateral ceasefire declaration, with an alternative road through the territory under the full azeri control.
These concerns have further increased after the meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan held last July 15 in Brussels, where the President of the European Council Charles Michel welcomed Azerbaijan’s declaration of readiness to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid from the city of Aghdam, formerly occupied by Armenians. Similar observations were expressed on 19 July by Toivo Klaar, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, and then ten days later also by Joseph Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy.
However, European officials stressed that any possible route for the transport of humanitarian aid from Azerbaijan to Karabakh via the city of Aghdam should coexist with the Lachin corridor, rather than replace it. Karabakh, on the other hand, sees any use of an alternative route as yet another attempt to reintegrate the region into Azerbaijani territory. Stepanakert reproaches Pashinyan for publicly expressing Armenia’s readiness to recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including Karabakh.
The EU, the United States and Russia have urged Baku to allow traffic to be restored along the Lachin corridor. The same request was also launched during some protest demonstrations held in Stepanakert, which however were attended by only a few thousand people. The protests staged daily in the Armenian capital, and in front of the United Nations office, also saw low attendance.
Protesters collected food and other goods, demanding the United Nations deliver them to the people of Karabakh. The UN has not yet responded to this request, and it is unlikely that it will. However, the protests prompted the Armenian government to act by sending its own convoy of 19 trucks with 360 tons of humanitarian aid to that part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border adjacent to the checkpoint set up by Baku at the start of the Lachin corridor.
On July 27, the convoy left Yerevan after the checks carried out by foreign diplomats stationed in the Armenian capital. Azerbaijan immediately called the convoy “a demonstrative act of sabotage”, implying that it will not let it pass [verso il Karabakh]. As of this writing, the convoy is still stationary in the village of Kornidzor and will apparently remain there for some time. The EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA) is monitoring the situation.
On Saturday 29 July, the impasse on the Lachin issue looked set to escalate further when, during the medical evacuations carried out by the ICRC through the Lachin Corridor, a 68-year-old Karabakh national was stopped by Azerbaijani border guards. Among 15 patients being transferred from Stepanakert to Yerevan, Vagif Khachtryan was accused by Baku of committing war crimes during the First Nagorno Karabakh War of the 1990s.
According to Baku, the man was transferred to a hospital where the ICRC examined him together with a doctor. The incident sparked outrage in Nagorno Karabakh, prompting the prime minister in fact Gurgen Nersisyan to call a protest which saw dozens of people gather in front of the ICRC office in Stepanakert. “We want you to understand that you are not capable of guaranteeing the safety of the citizens of Artsakh [Karabakh]”, said Nersisyan in one of the rare critical utterances against the ICRC.
“We call upon all decision makers involved to respect our purely humanitarian mission,” the ICRC said in a tweet published after the umpteenth blockade of medical evacuations and repatriations. “[Chiediamo] relevant decision-makers to allow the ICRC to resume its main humanitarian operations in the area,” reads a Press release released by the ICRC, which also underlines that it found itself unable to operate both along the Lachin corridor and through the city of Aghdam.
“For the population [del Karabakh] our humanitarian aid convoys are a lifeline […] Now that these convoys are blocked, we fear that the situation could escalate further. Our greatest concern are those who cannot take care of themselves. People with chronic illnesses and diseases are particularly at risk, as are the elderly, infirm and children,” explained Ariane Bauer, ICRC Regional Director for Eurasia.
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