Artsakh has been under blockade by Azerbaijan for over a week, causing a shortage of food, medicine and other necessities and sparking international condemnation.
Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, the sole route connecting Artsakh and Armenia, on December 12. The corridor is typically used to transport 400 tons of food and medicine from Armenia to Artsakh every day, according to Artsakh authorities. Shelves at grocery stores and pharmacies in Artsakh are emptying out, as the region faces a shortage of kitchen staples like flour and sugar, nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables as well as essential medicines.
— Marut Vanyan (@marutvanian) December 21, 2022
Azerbaijan is “putting Artsakh under illegal siege and deliberately creating unbearable living conditions for the 120,000 people of Artsakh,” the Artsakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 20. “People are deprived of the right to freedom of movement, appropriate healthcare and supply of vital goods.”
The corridor is also used to transport patients from Artsakh to medical centers in Armenia. Surgeries that had been scheduled for Artsakh patients in Armenian hospitals have been suspended. One patient, a 44-year-old who had been on hemodialysis and could not be transferred to a medical center in Armenia, died on December 19. Over two dozen patients, including eight children, are in resuscitation in Artsakh medical centers; five patients are in critical condition, including a four-month-old baby diagnosed with Visceral Leishmaniasis, a life-threatening disease.
On December 19, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the transfer of a patient who needed emergency heart surgery to Armenia. The Artsakh Health Ministry ambulance was accompanied by vehicles of Russian peacekeepers and the ICRC.
Today we facilitated the transfer of a patient in need of urgent medical assistance across Lachin road to Armenia.
As part of our role as a neutral intermediary, we stand ready to continue facilitating such operations. pic.twitter.com/YX3HAZuMAr
— ICRC (@ICRC) December 19, 2022
Families have also been separated by the road closure. About 1,100 citizens, including 270 children, have been stranded along the road and prevented from returning home to Artsakh.
The Lachin Corridor was closed by a group of government-sponsored Azerbaijani protesters posing as environmental activists. They have pitched tents along the Stepanakert-Goris highway to demand that the Russian peacekeeping force allow them to inspect what they call “illegal mining” in Artsakh.
According to the ceasefire agreement ending the 2020 Artsakh War, Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the Lachin Corridor to ensure its security. The ceasefire agreement also commits Azerbaijan to guaranteeing “traffic safety along the Lachin Corridor of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions.”
Last week, Russian officials responded to criticisms that the peacekeeping mission in Artsakh is not doing enough to remove the protesters and reopen the road. Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that accusations and acts of provocation against the Russian peacekeepers are inadmissible and counterproductive “no matter where they come from.”
“The Russian peacekeeping contingent is efficiently carrying out its tasks, acting as a guarantor of stability in the region,” Zakharova told reporters on December 15.
Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan also defended the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers in a December 16 address.
“We highly appreciate the conscious steps taken by the peacekeepers to alleviate the humanitarian problems of our people,” Harutyunyan said. “We will continue our struggle and will never be a tool to put pressure on the Russian Federation or damage its reputation, because we are sure that the Russian Federation has the irrevocable will to solve the problems diplomatically and through dialogue.”
International condemnation of Azerbaijan’s closure of the Lachin Corridor has been near unanimous.
On December 21, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said that Azerbaijan must “take all measures that are within their jurisdiction to ensure safe passage through the Lachin Corridor of seriously ill persons in need of medical treatment in Armenia and others who were stranded on the road without shelter or means of subsistence.” The international court issued the interim measure at the request of the Armenian government.
The ECHR said that Azerbaijan has the responsibility under the ceasefire to “guarantee the security of persons, vehicles and cargo moving along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.” It also said that the “extent to which the government of Azerbaijan is currently in control of the situation in the Lachin Corridor is disputed and unclear at this stage.”
The United States and France reiterated their calls on Azerbaijan to reopen the corridor during a United Nations Security Council session on December 20. The session was convened at the request of the government of Armenia.
US Ambassador Robert Wood called on “Azerbaijan and others responsible for the corridor’s security,” likely in reference to the Russian peacekeepers, “to restore free movement, including for humanitarian and commercial use, as soon as possible.”
“Let me be clear: impediments to the use of the Lachin Corridor set back the peace process. They undermine international confidence in this process. And they carry potential severe humanitarian implications,” Wood said. “Any attempt to cut off services essential to the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh is unacceptable.”
Nathalie Estival-Broadhurst, the deputy permanent representative of France to the UN, called obstacles to free movement between Armenia and Artsakh “unacceptable.”
“The blocking of the Lachin Corridor has direct consequences of isolating the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the French diplomat said. “It has humanitarian consequences which are worsening day by day.”
Russia has refrained from accusing Azerbaijan of closing the Lachin Corridor. Anna Evstigneeva, Russian deputy representative to the UN, said that Russia is “concerned by the information about the blocking of the Lachin Corridor, which resulted from disagreements about ore deposits in the region.”
Evstigneeva said that under the ceasefire agreement, “the sides undertook commitments which need to be strictly abided by inter alia to ensure there are no difficulties for the lives of civilians. We expect that the full transport connection will be restored in the very near future.”
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan praised the results of the Security Council session. He said the discussion “clearly indicates the strong and unequivocal international consensus on immediate and unconditional opening of the Lachin Corridor, which is blocked by Azerbaijan.”
Human Rights Watch has also called for the reopening of the road.
“Regardless of who is blocking the road, Azerbaijan’s authorities and the Russian peacekeeping force deployed there should ensure that access remains open, to enable freedom of movement and ensure people have access to essential goods and services,” Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said on December 21. “The longer the disruption to essential goods and services, the greater the risk to civilians.”
Lillian Avedian
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Turks are cowards, they only attack small country like Armenia, they don’t dare confront a county of their level.
That’s very true. They are opportunist cowards like the hyenas in the wild. They use very derogatory rhetoric with threats against much smaller and weaker Armenia but when it comes to dealing with equal or higher power, like Russia for example, their terrorist-in-chief Islamo-fascist Er-dog-an goes on a pilgrimage to Moscow, throws down his prayer rug, kneels down and kisses Putin’s feet, and asks for forgiveness. Comes back hone, recites a verse from their religion to his illiterate peasant followers and is hailed as a hero! That’s the Tricky Turkish way! No guts! Full of manufactured glory!
We should have been prepared for this long time ago!
How many time do we need to get screwed by the turks and the russians to understand that we cannot rely on turks to act like human beings or the russians to act as an Ally!
What’s puzzling to me is why Azerbaijan needs any financial aid from anyone in the first place when they have oil & gas revenues in billions of dollars annually? Whatever aid they receive must be bribe money. I also believe the US and France, and others for that matter, would have provided direct military assistance to the Armenians but can’t because Armenia is still a member of the dysfunctional Russian-led CSTO which is more or less a failed Russian version of the NATO alliance. But unfortunately, unlike NATO member states, CSTO member states are mostly run by dictators and they have closer ties with our enemies than they do with their fellow Armenian CSTO member state. This blockade by Azerbaijani state agents disguised as environmentalists is an Azerbaijani ploy and a trap to drag the Armenians into yet another war with Azerbaijan, with full Turkish backing, to try to get militarily what they have realized they can’t get legally. They think with Russia completely bogged down in Ukraine this is their opportunity to do so. We must not fall into their trap. Ironically, one positive outcome from this blockade is that if the international community thought Armenians can live under Azerbaijani control by means of some fake peace deal, they are now convinced that is impossibility. If Azerbaijan’s chicken-hawk Aliyev can try to starve Armenians to get what he wants in front of their eyes, they can only imagine what he is capable of doing if he has anything to say about the future of 120K Armenians in Artsakh.
BRAVO! FINALLY SOMEONE WITH HALF A BRAIN!
The verbal support from the US and France is nice, but how about some concrete actions. For example for every day of the blockade reduce US aid to Azerbaijan by 5 million dollars and shift it Artsakh for humanitarian purposes. And the EU could put price caps on Azeri oil and gas exports if the blockade continues another 48 hours. If there is no concrete response to criminal behavior, then it emboldens the criminal to push the envelope further. Although the military of Artsakh and Armenia are well within their rights to forcibly remove these so called activists, doing so would be a pretext for the Turks and Azeris to accelorate their ethnic cleansing goals of Artsakh AND Armenia. And the sad fact is that Armenia with 3 million people have no chance against oil rich Azerbaijan with 10 million people and Turkey with 80 million people and the second largest military in NATO. And the sad truth is that nobody, including Russia, truly has Armenia’s back.
MINUES 5 MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY FOR BLOCKADING ARTSAKH? WAKE UP! YOU ARE DREAMING! WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT WHEN THEY ARE RECEIVING OIL GAS AND MINERAL CONTRACTS FROM AZERBAIJAN? YOU HAVE ONE THING RIGHT. ARMENIA DOES NOT HAVE 3 MILLION PEOPLE. IT HAS 1 MILLION PEOPLE LEFT. 2 MILLION MOVED TO GLENDALE. ARMENIA AND ARTSAKH HAVE NO POWER PROFIT OR POPULATION. THEY ARE BUGS WHO CAN BE SQUASHED IN 2 SECONDS. YOU CAN THANK CORRUPTION AND ZERO NATION PLANNING FOR THAT.
If they are so ‘oil rich’ they wouldn’t care about 5 million dollars, would they.
It seems more Armenians are acknowledging the reality that Russia isn’t the kind of ally to Armenia that the USA currently is to Israel. Something that many Armenians in Armenia especially preferred to pretend otherwise, deny and overlook and should have been better understood and accepted however unpleasant to acknowledge years ago.
This quote: “We will continue our struggle and will never be a tool to put pressure on the Russian Federation or damage its reputation, because we are sure that the Russian Federation has the irrevocable will to solve the problems diplomatically and through dialogue.” I agree violence isn’t going to solve anything. However, Putin is in bed with Aliyev and Erdogan at the expense of all Armenians. When do we wake up? Maybe take a stronger stance and make our voices heard around the world? I want to do something. I don’t know what that might be. Even if I could do anything given my age and health. I donate and sign petitions. That’s not enough.
The Ukraine is overshadowing many other nations needing recognition and help. Putin’s plan to bring back the old world. He needs to get a grip and move forward with the rest of humanity.
ARMENIA IS RUSSIA’S TOY DOLL. SOMETIMES IT GETS LOVE FROM RUSSIA. OTHER TIMES IT GETS THROWN ON THE FLOOR AND STEPPED ON. ARMENIA MUST DEVELOP NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND BE AN IRON STATE. 100% MILITARY. THAT IS THE WAY TO SURVIVE AND COMMAND RESPECT IN THAT GEOGRAPHIC GUTTER. TOO BAD ARMENIA IS RUN BY AMATEURS AND CROOKS.
Not one reply addressed the large elephant in the room. We all expect or ask for outside assistance, correct? Yet where is the one Nation that is supposed to protect Armenian’s of Artsahk? Yes ,that nation is Armenia. The leadership chose to abandon our Artsahk, choosing instead to continue blame the Russians for not stepping in as peace keepers.
Until Armenia shows the resolve to care for all is Armenians citizens and lands, do not expect the rest of the world to care.
Our troops should never have been removed from protecting the borders. The Pashinyan regime also gave to our enemies locations of land mines, which were placed defensively, to protect our very borders. Our POW’s are still being held. I could go on and on.
So if we want change, then we have to look in the mirror and replace the leadership at the top.
ARMENIAN TROOPS WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED IN 0.00006 SECONDS BY THE TURKS WHO ARE THE WORLD’S 13TH STRONGEST MILITARY. ARMENIA IS RANKED 98. LIKE MANY, YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. RETURN TO REALITY.
Really? How about the ultra useless loser Pashinyan’s responsibility in all of this? The status quo was maintained for 30 plus years. UNTILL the loser of Armenia “got elected”. Yes the old regimes were exceptionally corrupt in their own right and Armenia did need a political more uniting change. But isolating Artsakh and even losing some of Armenia proper as a result of this most incompetent useless loser is NOT MY IDEA OF NEEDED CHANGE. Pashinyan is also responsibile. DO NOT EVER IGNORE THAT.
31 YEARS OF NATION BUILDING, NATION STRENGTHENING, AND NATION ARMING MONEY WAS MISMANAGED, STOLEN, AND WASTED BY ARMENIAN CROOKS. BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!! THE TURKS OR AZERIS DID NOT MISMANAGE, STEAL, AND WASTE THAT MONEY. WE DID. ARMENIANS. NOW, LIKE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF ARMENIAN HISTORY, WE ARE AGAIN VICTIMS, ON OUR KNEES, IN FRONT OF MICROPHONES, HOLDING PAPER DEMANDS LIKE KHRIMYAN HAYRIK, BEGGING AND PLEADING WITH THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR HELP. ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT. WE ARE DELUSIONAL AND TRULY STUPID AND PATHETIC. THE ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT IS FILLED WITH SHORT-SIGHTED, SELFISH, AND GREEDY DIPLOMATIC AMATEURS. MY 12 YEAR OLD GRAND DAUGHTER COULD HAVE BUILT A BETTER ARMENIA IN 31 YEARS WITH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. NO WONDER KIRK KERKORIAN SENT HIS OWN MANAGERS TO OVERSEE HIS MULTI MILLION DOLLAR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS. HE DID NOT TRUST THE ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT OR ITS PEOPLE.
Don’t read too much into that ‘Globalfirepower’ website. It is rubbish. It uses quantity rather then quality and does not care about reality. It does not take most things into consideration. North Korea had the world’s strongest Navy for 3 years before they changed it. It counts tug boats and other non sense as equal to a corvette or aircraft carrier. Yeah also no one cares who owned what when, the world can’t be restructured to fit your old kingdom glory days. Get real and get with the times. You don’t need land to be a wealthy state. Do business and stop demanding things. A 50 year old Kingdom ain’t that great either. We had like 7 of those or more. Also Ararat guy needs to chill. Insults don’t really work.
Lahmacun is NOT Turkish – It is Lebanese
The world does not need to be restructured to fit our demands. The Turkish minds need to be readjusted and restructured to see facts as they were instead of blindly accepting the institutional brainwashing they have been getting for the last hundred plus years.
Speaking of chilling, I suggest you direct that remark to your terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an who like an infant throws temper tantrums ranting and raving about anything and everything he can’t tolerate and is displeasing to his ears.
As for insults, once again, I suggest you redirect that remark to Turkish mullah Er-dog-an disguised in suit & tie who refers to the descendants of the Armenian Genocide victims as ‘remnants of the sword’ and considers being called an Armenian offensive and derogatory.
Maybe I should refresh, Dementia-stricken readers, on how Nikol Pashinyan, became Prime SINISTER of Armenia. During his, Tuxov Tetoum Keloukhov movement, at the Freedom Square he screamed top of his lung, ” Either I will become the next Prime Minister of Armenia, or Armenia WILL NOT have prime Minister”. Now, that’s what you call, Power Grab. Sooner this, clown and his circus troupe, vanish the better for Armenia.
If we can learn to move forward on ALL fronts, we have it made.
Hello friends, I am half turkish, half armenian grew up in Turkey as grandson of converted genocide orphans. Now I live in the US. Although I cannot find myself a place in neither community I want you to know I pray for people of Artsakh. I condemn Azerbaijan who uses oil and gas money to buy guns and make an army to silence people and try to torture the weak. This is not humane. I wish there was a way to help people of Artsakh except making comments here. Maybe I can reach out to our senator here but whoever has the money will do what they want in this world.