“The European Union is deeply concerned about the serious humanitarian situation affecting the local population in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement. “The movement through the Lachin corridor remains obstructed for more than seven months, despite Orders by the International Court of Justice to reopen it.”
“Medical supplies and essential goods are in short supply or have already run out, with dire consequences for the local population. It is incumbent on the Azerbaijani authorities to guarantee safety and freedom of movement along the Lachin corridor imminently and not to permit the crisis to escalate further,” added Borrell.
Like the United States and Russia, the EU has repeatedly called for an end to the crippling blockade of Karabakh’s only land link with Armenia and the outside world. Borrell’s statement is the most strongly-worded of its appeals made to date.
Azerbaijan rejected the statement on Thursday, saying that it is based on “the Armenian side’s false propaganda.” “Presenting legitimate actions of Azerbaijan as a closure of the Lachin road is fundamentally wrong,” said Aykhan Hajizade, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Hajizade insisted on a different, Azerbaijani-controlled supply route for Karabakh proposed by Baku and rejected by Karabakh’s leadership as a cynical ploy designed to facilitate the restoration of Azerbaijani control over the Armenian-populated region.
Borrell stressed in this regard that while the EU “took note” of the Azerbaijani proposal it “should not be seen as an alternative to the reopening of the Lachin corridor.”
The EU official made the appeal shortly after the Azerbaijani side refused to allow a convoy of 19 Armenian trucks carrying 360 tons of food aid for Karabakh residents to pass through a checkpoint which it controversially set up in the Lachin corridor in April.
The trucks sent by the Armenian government remained stuck near the checkpoint on Thursday. EU monitors deployed along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan visited the area on Wednesday.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian condemned Baku’s refusal to let the aid convoy through. He said Yerevan still hopes it will be allowed to proceed to Stepanakert. The Azerbaijani authorities’ failure to do so would lend credence to “concerns about Baku's intention to commit genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinian added during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.