Forty-one Karabakh-born citizens of Russia as well as students enrolled in Armenian universities were escorted by Russian peacekeepers on Monday to an Azerbaijani checkpoint set up in the corridor in April before entering Armenia.
Another group of Karabakh Armenians passed through the checkpoint on Tuesday. They included the 17-year-old Knar Khachatrian, who was recently admitted to Yerevan State University.
“I expected the process of going through the checkpoint to be more complicated, but it was actually easy and everything went well,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service after crossing into Armenia.
Many of the travellers were approached at the checkpoint by a large number of journalists from state-controlled Azerbaijani media that portrayed their journey as proof of Baku’s claims that Karabakh has not been cut off from the outside world. Karabakh authorities accused Baku of manipulating those interviews for propaganda purposes.
“The Azerbaijani side continues to create humiliating conditions at the illegal checkpoint located near the Hakari bridge, in addition to its illegal surveillance of and obstacles for the citizens of Artsakh,” read a statement released by a Karabakh agency on Monday evening.
The authorities in Stepanakert argue that Azerbaijan keeps blocking commercial and humanitarian traffic through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. The blockade, compounded by the disruption of Armenia’s gas and electricity supplies to Karabakh, has led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other essential items in the Armenian-populated region.
Baku has also periodically banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from transporting critically ill Karabakh residents to Armenian hospitals. The medical evacuations continued on Tuesday, with the ICRC escorting seven such patients to Armenia and transferring as many others back to Karabakh.
Meanwhile, the family of a young Karabakh woman who died in an August 13 road accident in Armenia still awaited Azerbaijani permission to repatriate her body through the ICRC. The Red Cross said it is continuing to discuss the matter with Baku.