In a statement issued on Sunday, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that work has begun to “establish control” along the Lachin corridor, the only highway that connects the separatist territory to Armenia.
According to the officials, this action is intended to stop “the rotation of the personnel of the Armenian armed forces who continue to be illegally stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan, the transfer of weapons and ammunition, the entry of terrorists, as well as the illicit trafficking of natural resources.”
After the 2020 war between the two sides in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Lachin Corridor came under the jurisdiction of Russian peacekeeping forces as part of a Moscow-backed ceasefire agreement. In December, environmental activists in Azerbaijan, backed by the government in Baku, scaled the barbed wire fence and began blocking the road in what they said was a protest over illegal mining, POLITICO reports.
Since then, only peacekeeping forces and aid convoys operated by the Red Cross have been able to reach the tens of thousands of Armenians who call the region home. Food and energy rationing was implemented. Russian troops were unable or unwilling to restore the flow of civilian traffic and appeared to take no action against Sunday’s checkpoint installation.
Armenia’s foreign ministry said the move was a “flagrant violation” of the 2020 ceasefire, in which Baku agreed to “guarantee the safe movement of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions along the Lachin Corridor”. . According to Yerevan, the checkpoint also violates an International Court of Justice call for Azerbaijan to “take all measures at its disposal” to ensure the “unfettered” flow of traffic.
The US State Department declared itself “deeply concerned” by this development and urged Azerbaijan to ensure the “free and open movement of people and commerce in the Lachin Corridor”.
Baku insists it has the right to exercise control over the territory and has called on Armenians living there to lay down their arms and accept being ruled by Azerbaijan.
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