Tensions rise after Azerbaijan blocks land route from Armenia
Azerbaijan says it has set up a checkpoint on the only land route into the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan has said it has established a checkpoint on the only land route into the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a move followed by claims of border shootings by both Azerbaijani and Armenian forces.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its 120,000 inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Armenians and the region broke away from Baku during a war in the early 1990s.
Azerbaijan said on Sunday it had established a checkpoint on the road leading to Karabakh, saying the move was essential because of what it portrayed as Armenia’s use of the road to transport weapons.
Azerbaijan “took appropriate measures to establish control at the starting point of the road,” the foreign ministry said.
“Providing border security and ensuring safe road traffic is the prerogative of the government of Azerbaijan and an essential prerequisite for national security, state sovereignty and the rule of law.”
Armenia said the checkpoint at Hakari Bridge in the Lachin Corridor was a gross violation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement that ended a 2020 war.
It called on Russia to implement the agreement, which states that the Lachin Corridor, the only road through Azerbaijan connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, must be under the control of Russian peacekeepers.
“We call on the Russian Federation to finally implement the trilateral declaration,” the Armenian foreign ministry said of the agreement brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The United States government said it was “deeply concerned” that Azerbaijan established the checkpoint on the only land route to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, saying it undermines efforts for peace in the region.
The US State Department also said there should be free and open movement of people and trade on the Lachin Corridor, and urged both sides to resume peace talks.
Photos of the bridge posted on social media by Azerbaijani officials showed one side of it being blocked by vehicles and soldiers.
The Armenian defense ministry said a soldier named Artyom Poghosyan was killed at about 07:50 GMT when Azerbaijani troops opened fire on an Armenian position in Sotk, an Armenian village east of Lake Sevan. Azerbaijan denied killing the soldier.
Azerbaijan then claimed that Armenian soldiers fired on Azerbaijani units at about 11:10 GMT in the Lachin district, a claim that Armenia denied.
In 2020, Azerbaijan retook territory in and around the enclave after a second war that ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire enforced by Russian peacekeepers.
Azerbaijani citizens who identify as environmentalists have been confronted by Russian peacekeepers on the Lachin Corridor since December 12.
Armenia says the protesters are government-backed agitators effectively blocking Karabakh. Azerbaijan denies blocking the road and says some convoys and aid supplies have been allowed through.
In recent months, Armenia has repeatedly called on Moscow to do more to support peace and ensure unfettered access between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor.