Colonna’s regional tour that also included a stop in Baku comes amid heightened Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions over a land corridor that connects Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor on April 23, thus tightening the already existing blockade of the Armenian-populated region that was effectively imposed by government-backed Azerbaijani protesters back in December.
Both in Baku and Yerevan the top French diplomat 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, explaining that the checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin road was installed in response to Armenia’s “illegal military supplies” to the region, a claim denied both in Yerevan and Stepanakert.
Azerbaijan has also pledged 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 a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that put an end to a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in 2020.
During their meeting in Yerevan late on Thursday the French minister and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian described “unilateral actions by Azerbaijan” as “unacceptable.”
Pashinian’s press office also quoted Colonna as saying that France supports Armenia “in the search for a just and sustainable peace.”
While on her visit to Armenia on April 28 the French minister also travelled to Jermuk, an Armenian resort town that was shelled by Azerbaijani troops during last September’s deadly fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigorian accompanied Colonna on the trip.
Edward Asrian, the chief of the Armenian Armed Forces’ General Staff, reportedly presented to the senior French official the situation in Jermuk after last year’s fighting that both sides blamed on each other.
Armenia says Azerbaijan occupied chunks of its sovereign territory after an unprovoked aggression, which Baku denies.
Asrian said that the territory that Azerbaijani forces penetrated in the direction of Jermuk made over 60 square kilometers, with the front of the penetration stretching 11 kilometers wide and going up to 8 kilometers deep into Armenian territory. He said both military and civilian infrastructure came under shelling.
“Great damage was done to civilian infrastructure. The town of Jermuk suffered significant damage,” the senior Armenian military official said.
During her trip to Jermuk the French foreign minister, in particular, wrote on Twitter: “[I am] in Jermuk, with the observation mission of the European Union. The European Union is helping to ease tensions and build prospects for peace. The ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia must be respected in order to find the way of trust.”
In February, the European Union deployed about 100 civilian monitors in Armenia on a two-year mission to reduce the risk of a serious escalation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. A smaller two-month-long EU observation mission had already been deployed in Armenia following last fall’s clashes along its restive border with Azerbaijan.
At their meeting yesterday Pashinian and Colonna also highlighted the importance of “the effective activities of the EU observation mission in Armenia in the context of ensuring security and stability in the region.”