The head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, visiting Baku, estimated on Thursday April 27 that it was “possible to end” the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh which has pitted Azerbaijan against Armenia since more than thirty years, despite new tensions
“France has only one goal and has no other wish than to contribute to peace and find the path to peace,” Colonna said at a joint press conference with her Azerbaijani counterpart. , Djeyhoun Baïramov, whom she invited to Paris in order to continue the discussions. It is a “long and difficult process but it is possible to succeed”, she added.
Ms. Colonna, whose visit is the first of a French foreign minister to Baku for six years, noted that “on the Lachin corridor, we have a difference of view on this point because we have legal aspects “. She felt that it was necessary to restore “trust”, stressing that “the region needs gestures that nourish it if we want to nourish the peace process” because, according to her, “trust brings solutions, mistrust the difficulties”.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan set up a roadblock at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, which is the only axis linking Armenia to the separatist Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a first since 2020. Since a ceasefire In 2020, Russia deployed a contingent of peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh to ensure traffic on the Lachin corridor.
Route vitale
Mr. Bairamov on Thursday defended this decision by Baku, which provoked international criticism, including that of Paris. He lamented that Paris “never called” Yerevan to try to ease tensions, while ensuring that the Lachin Corridor “remained open”.
A historic ally of Armenia, France argued on Sunday that the installation of this checkpoint “contravened the commitments made” and “damaged the negotiation process”. Armenia has strongly condemned the installation of this dam, having often accused Baku of blocking this vital road for almost six months.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday called on Russia, the mediator in the conflict with Azerbaijan, to keep control of this vital route. The Russian peacekeeping mission “must control the Lachin corridor and ensure its functioning”, Nikol Pashinian demanded Thursday, during a government meeting. “Nobody except the Russian Federation has the right to control the corridor,” he said again, assuring that Baku’s objective was “the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Catherine Colonna also met Thursday with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the presidential palace. On this occasion, the Azerbaijani leader once again accused Yerevan of using the Lachin corridor to “transport weapons and military equipment” and claimed that Armenia was not fulfilling “its obligations”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, clashed for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave during a first war in the early 1990s before an armed conflict in 2020, won by Baku.
Since then, tensions between the two countries have persisted and sporadic clashes continue to break out in Nagorno-Karabakh, but also on the official border between the two States, despite the efforts of Western powers and Russia to find a peace treaty. peace.