In a statement issued on Sunday Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the roadblock that Azerbaijan said was set up at the border with Armenia near the Hakari river bridge “grossly violated” the terms of the Moscow-brokered 2020 ceasefire under which Russian peacekeepers are to control a five-kilometer-wide corridor between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
“It is really a flagrant violation of one of the fundamental provisions of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement that is aimed at the consistent implementation of Azerbaijan’s policy of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and the complete annihilation of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Armenian ministry said.
The trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020 put an end to a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh in which nearly 7,000 soldiers were killed on both sides.
The war in which Azerbaijan regained all of the Armenian-controlled areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh as well as chunks of territory inside the Soviet-era autonomous oblast proper was followed by international efforts to broker a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku.
In its statement today Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “the installation by Azerbaijan of a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor as well as previous similar actions combined with continuous Armeniophobic and threatening rhetoric are aimed at scuttling the negotiations on a document for the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“We call on the Russian Federation to finally fulfil its obligation under provision 6 of the trilateral statement by eliminating the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor and ensuring the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from the entire security zone of the corridor,” the Armenian ministry underscored.
In substantiating its decision to set up the checkpoint, Azerbaijan’s State Border Service cited the need to curb further “military supplies” from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, a claim repeatedly denied in both Yerevan and Stepanakert.
On April 22, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense claimed that Russian peacekeepers controlling the area again helped Armenians transport “military cargoes” from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin road.
It also reported an incident in which three Azerbaijani soldiers were injured when their vehicle was blown up on a mine allegedly supplied from Armenia.
Azerbaijan’s State Border Service also said that the opening of its checkpoint followed a similar unilateral step by Armenia made on April 22. Authorities in Yerevan have not yet commented on this.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued today Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pledged that “necessary conditions” will be created for “a transparent and orderly passage of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan” through the checkpoint in both directions.
It stressed that the control mechanism will be carried out in cooperation with the Russian peacekeeping force.
According to a local leader in Armenia’s southern Syunik region that borders on the Lachin corridor, as of Sunday afternoon negotiations were underway between Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijan’s representatives regarding the checkpoint.
Meanwhile, a United States Department of State representative said on April 23 that Washington is “deeply concerned that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process.”
“We reiterate that there should be free and open movement of people and commerce on the Lachin corridor and call on the parties to resume peace talks and refrain from provocations and hostile actions along the border,” said Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson, in a press statement.
Armenia’s Ministry of Defense said on April 23 that one of its soldiers was killed by an Azerbaijani sniper near the border. Azerbaijan denied the allegation and said its soldiers had come under fire in the border area.
The only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia has effectively been blockaded by Azerbaijan since December when a group of Azerbaijanis calling themselves environmental activists blocked traffic at a junction near the Azerbaijani-controlled Karabakh city of Shushi (Susa).
Azerbaijan has denied blockading the mostly Armenian-populated region, citing the fact that vehicles of Russian peacekeepers as well as representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have not been prevented from carrying humanitarian supplies to the region and transporting people needing medical care to Armenia.
Speaking in parliament earlier this week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stressed that Armenia recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and is ready to sign a relevant peace treaty with Baku.
“The peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will become realistic if the two countries recognize clearly, without ambiguities and pitfalls, each other’s territorial integrity and undertake not to ever submit territorial claims to each other,” Pashinian said on April 18.
“I now want to reaffirm that Armenia fully recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and we expect Azerbaijan to do the same by recognizing the entire territory of the Armenian [Soviet Socialist Republic] as the [modern-day] Republic of Armenia,” he added.
Pashinian’s remarks drew criticism from Armenian opposition figures as well as political leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh, who claimed that they were “consistent with the position of official Baku.”