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.”
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