It said the talks should take place at the headquarters of Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Karabakh.
“The humanitarian issues include the restoration of electricity and gas supplies [to Karabakh] and the unblocking of the corridor,” Artur Harutiunian, a senior Karabakh lawmaker, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The commanders of the peacekeepers most recently hosted such talks on March 1. The Azerbaijani government afterwards twice invited Karabakh’s representatives to Baku for talks on the Armenian-populated region’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.
The authorities in Stepanakert dismissed the offer. They said Azerbaijani and Karabakh officials should first and foremost discuss the reopening of the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. They also insisted on an “internationally recognized negotiation format” for a broader political settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Baku did not immediately respond to Stepanakert’s proposal which is understood to have been communicated to it through the Russian peacekeepers.
Metakse Hakobian, a Karabakh opposition figure, was skeptical about the proposal. Hakobian argued that Baku further tightened the road blockade and again blocked Armenia’s gas supplies to Karabakh following the March 1 meeting.
The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly urged Azerbaijan to unblock traffic through the Lachin corridor in line with the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Baku has rejected those calls, saying that Azerbaijani government-backed protesters, who occupied a section of the road on December 12, are right to demand an end to “illegal” mining in Karabakh.
On February 22, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the Azerbaijani government to “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”