Humanitarian corridor in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to be reopened

“AThe authorities of the Republic of Artsakh, in order to alleviate the serious humanitarian problems caused by the total blockade of Azerbaijan, decided to authorize Russian access through the city of Askeran,” stated the Artsakh Information Center, quoted by the Armenian daily Asbarez.

The newspaper reports that the Russian government has launched a humanitarian aid delivery operation to the Republic of Artsakh in response to the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the support of essential goods that will be delivered by the Russian Red Cross.

In a press release released today, the United States called for the “immediate and simultaneous” opening of humanitarian corridors on the Latchin and Agdam roads, “to allow the passage of absolutely necessary humanitarian goods for the men, women and children of Nagorno- Karabakh”.

In the note, the United States follows the concern already expressed by the European Union regarding the “rapid deterioration” of the humanitarian situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The US State Department acknowledged being “deeply concerned” about the situation in the enclave disputed for 30 years by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Since April, Azerbaijan has blocked the Latchin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia to the Nagorno-Karabakh exclave. Azerbaijan guarantees that the corridor is not closed to civilians.

The European Council had already warned, on the 1st, of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, calling for concrete actions from Azerbaijan and Armenia to protect the population and reduce tensions.

Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, fought in two wars, in the early 1990s and in 2020, for control of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region whose population is mostly Armenian and which separated from the Azerbaijan for over 30 years.

At the end of the short war in which, in autumn 2020, Azerbaijan recovered territories from this breakaway region, Baku and Yerevan concluded a ceasefire promoted by Russia.

Tensions intensified this year, when Baku announced, on April 23, that it had installed a first road checkpoint at the entrance to the Latchin corridor, the only axis that connects Armenia to the separatist enclave, already subject to an embargo that caused shortages. of essential goods and electricity cuts.

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