Azerbaijan announced on Sunday April 23 that it had installed a first checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Armenia to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an “unacceptable” decision for Yerevan. Azerbaijani border guards say in a statement that they acted “in response” to a similar decision taken by their neighbors on Saturday.
Such a measure, a first since the short war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020, was also put in place “to prevent the illegal transport of labour, weapons and mines from the territory of Armenia for illegal formations of Armenian bandits on the territory of Azerbaijan,” they said.
“On April 22, Ministry of Defense surveillance cameras recorded the entry into Azerbaijani territory of two containers for military purposes and a convoy of Armenian military vehicles, contrary to the Trilateral Declaration and the Norms and Principles international law,” supported Azerbaijani diplomacy in a statement, denouncing “provocations” from Yerevan.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry argued that the installation of a checkpoint “will serve for transparency on the movements (…), the rule of law, and thus, to ensure the safety and security of the movements”. According to Azerbaijani border guards, the Russian peacekeeping force, deployed in the region, and “the Russian-Turkish monitoring center” were “informed” of such a decision. In a statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry denounced “a new provocation” with “false and baseless pretexts”.
“Humanitarian Crisis”
The United States says it is “very concerned about Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor” and calls on both sides to “avoid provocations,” according to a State Department statement. France also “deplores” this installation which “contravenes the commitments made within the framework of the ceasefire agreements and prejudices the negotiation process”, underlined its ministry of foreign affairs in a press release.
Paris called on Baku to “comply with its international obligations”, recalling that a decision handed down two months ago by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the UN, was “binding force” for Azerbaijan. On February 22, the ICJ ordered Baku to ensure free movement in the Lachin corridor.
Armenia has also been warning for several months of a “humanitarian crisis” in Karabakh due to an Azerbaijani blockade – which Baku denies – in the Lachin Corridor area which has caused shortages of medicine and food and Power cuts.
The separatist representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh have called on Moscow, mediator in the conflict, “to immediately start discussions” in order to “prevent the installation of an Azerbaijani checkpoint”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, clashed in 2020 in a war for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. This conflict resulted in an Armenian military rout and a Russian-sponsored ceasefire agreement. However, clashes continue to break out periodically.
The first conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives in the early 1990s when the USSR disbanded, ended in an Armenian victory with the support of Moscow.
