Speaking at a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpart Catherine Colonna in Yerevan, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stressed that the status of the corridor was agreed upon in the Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that put an end to a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
The agreement placed Russian peacekeepers in charge of providing security for Nagorno-Karabakh and ensuring free movement for its people along a five-kilometer-wide strip of land connecting the mostly Armenian-populated region with Armenia and known as the Lachin Corridor.
Citing Armenia’s “continued military supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh”, Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor on April 23, tightening the already existing blockade of the region that was effectively imposed by government-backed Azerbaijani protesters back in December.
The protesters posing as environmental activists said today they were suspending their action after blocking the road at a junction just off Stepanakert for 138 days. According to Azerbaijani media, their representatives said that the establishment by Baku of a border checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin road partly met their demands for control over the use of the region’s natural resources.
Authorities in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh described the roadblock as illegal. Russia also denounced Azerbaijan’s “unilateral actions” in the Lachin Corridor. The United States, France and other Western powers voiced their concerns that Azerbaijan’s move could fuel further tensions and undermine efforts by Yerevan and Baku to reach peace in the region.
Mirzoyan stressed on Friday that Armenia supports full implementation of the 2020 deal.
“It concerns not only the agreements on the Lachin Corridor. All agreements should be honored so that it becomes possible to have more serious achievements in the Armenia-Azerbaijan settlement,” he said.
Mirzoyan also reiterated Yerevan’s position that Baku should have an internationally visible dialogue with Stepanakert on the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.
For her part, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Colonna emphasized that Paris demonstrates full support for talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“France is not doing it alone, it is doing it together with the European Union, the United States, keeping in touch with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the UN, which can play a positive role in this process,” Colonna said.
She said that the path of peace is complex and difficult to find. “But, as I said in Yerevan and Baku, it is the only way that will make it possible to achieve a just and sustainable peace and will make it possible to create new prospects for the future of the two countries and their populations,” the French minister said.
During her earlier meetings in Baku and Yerevan Colonna urged Azerbaijan to comply with the order of the International Court of Justice that ruled in February that Azerbaijan must “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”
Official Baku denies blockading the Armenian-populated region, pledging to ensure, in cooperation with Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region, all “necessary conditions” for “a transparent and orderly passage of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan” in both directions.
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh dismiss such assurances, insisting that there must be only Russian presence in the corridor under the terms of the Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Receiving Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, the newly appointed commander of the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh, in Yerevan on April 28, Armenia’s Defense Minister Suren Papikian stressed the importance of efforts “to achieve the unblocking of the Lachin Corridor as soon as possible.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian also urged Azerbaijan and Russia to abide by the 2020 trilateral agreement to ensure free movement along the Lachin Corridor when he spoke at a weekly cabinet session in Yerevan on Thursday.
Pashinian also called for a broader international presence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor.
“Azerbaijan’s efforts to turn Nagorno-Karabakh into a new scaffold for Armenians must be stopped, and the only reliable way of doing that is the presence of representatives having a broad international mandate in Nagorno-Karabakh. As the first step it is necessary that an urgent international fact-finding mission be sent to Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor,” the Armenian leader underscored.