Day: September 12, 2023
09/12/2023September 12, 2023
Separatist authorities in Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region say supplies have arrived via Azerbaijan-controlled territory. Azerbaijan had closed a route linking the territory with Armenia.
A truck carrying aid from Russia crossed from Azerbaijani-held territory into the ethnic Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday, despite objections from some residents.
It is the first time in 35 years that officials in Nagorno-Karabakh have allowed use of the transport link amid fears that the connection would allow Azerbaijan to fully absorb the breakaway territory.
Why was the aid shipment needed?
Azerbaijan started to blockade another road — the Lachin corridor — in December, alleging Armenians were using it to ship arms in and smuggle minerals out.
Amid acute shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, Nagorno Karabakh authorities on Saturday conceded on allowing aid to be funneled through from Azerbaijani-held areas.
The local authority said the truck had arrived at its destination, the territory’s capital, Stepanakert, carrying blankets, toiletries and 1,000 food parcels.
Under the terms of the agreement, Nagorno-Karabakh officials had also stipulated that Azerbaijan reopen the Lachin corridor.
While it appeared that this might not immediately be the case, Russia’s foreign ministry said the shipment of aid represented “a first step” to resolving the crisis.
Russian officials said they expected that the Lachin corridor would be unblocked “in the near future.”
Vital and symbolic transport link
Nagorno-Karabakh slipped from Azerbaijan’s grasp in a separatist war as the Soviet Union collapsed. Since 1994, it has survived with direct support from Armenia thanks to control over the Lachin corridor.
During that first war, Armenia had gained control of swaths of territory around Nagorno-Karabach. However, Azerbaijan won that territory back in a six-week-long war with Armenia in 2020 — leaving Nagorno-Karabach once again surrounded.
Under a Russian-brokered armistice, the Lachin corridor became the sole connection between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russian troops policed the corridor until it was blocked last December.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has accused Russia of being either “unable or unwilling” to control the transport route. He has also warned of a return to all-out conflict.
Germany does not recognise the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” considering it to be part of Azerbaijan.
rc/jcg (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)
The US has failed to address the dire humanitarian situation in contested Nagorno-Karabakh, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez said on Tuesday as he called for sanctions on Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
Mr Menedez also called for an immediate halt to US aid to Baku in a powerful 15-minute speech on the Senate floor.
“I don’t know how the United States can justify spending any kind of support, security or otherwise to the regime in Baku … to send them assistance makes a mockery of [US aid],” he said.
Also known as Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh is an internationally recognised part of Azerbaijan, despite having a majority ethnic Armenian population.
Azerbaijan has blockaded the region since December and installed a military checkpoint at the critical Lachin Corridor.
The UN Security Council discussed the blockade in August, after a former International Criminal Court prosecutor said the blockade may amount to a “genocide” against Armenians. Lawyers representing Azerbaijan called the claims unsubstantiated and inaccurate.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars also recently warned of the risk of genocide against the Armenian population in the region.
Mr Menedez called on the US ambassador to the UN to introduce a Security Council resolution that would force an end to the blockade.
The powerful committee chairman held up a photo that allegedly showed the body of an emaciated Armenian in the disputed territory, demonstrating the blockade’s impact on civilian health.
He cited videos “of Azerbaijani forces killing unarmed Armenian soldiers in cold blood, reports of Azerbaijani soldiers sexually assaulting and mutilating and Armenian female soldiers,” which he claimed “bears the hallmarks of genocide.”
“We have seen and heard this kind of propaganda throughout history. It is the work of a regime intent on destroying and erasing this ancient Armenian community’s history in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Mr Menedez said.
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“Without immediate action this group of Armenians will be destroyed within a few weeks.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently spoke to Mr Aliyev by phone, where he “reiterated our call to reopen the Lachin Corridor to humanitarian, commercial and passenger traffic, while recognising the importance of additional routes from Azerbaijan”, the State Department said.
Reuters reported that a Russian lorry carrying food aid for Armenians in the Karabakh city of Khankendi set off via the Aghdam road on Tuesday, amid uncertainty over the sustainability of a potential deal on aid deliveries.
WASHINGTON — The United States and Armenia kicked off combined military exercises this week designed to train Armenian troops to participate in international peacekeeping missions, Armenia’s Defense Ministry said.
The exercise, dubbed “Eagle Partner,” includes 85 US and 175 Armenian personnel and is being held over 10 days at training facilities outside the capital Yerevan.
Why it matters: Tensions between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan are soaring. Both sides have accused each other of building up troops near the disputed territory of Karabakh.
The US military training mission puts Washington’s finger on the scale as it seeks to blunt Russia’s inroads in the Caucasus and amid a wider effort for rapprochement with Turkey.
Armenia has relied on a contingent of Russian peacekeeping troops since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, but Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has accused them of failing both to protect his side against Azerbaijan’s forces and to alleviate Baku’s blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Earlier in September, Pashinyan went so far as to say his government had made a “strategic mistake” to rely on Russia for defense ties, citing Moscow’s own need for munitions amid its war in Ukraine.
Russian reaction: Moscow summoned Armenia’s ambassador Vagharshak Harutyunyan in protest on Friday.
On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin sought to downplay the rift by emphasizing Russia’s longstanding ties with Armenia. “We have no problems with Prime Minister Pashinyan, as we communicate regularly,” he said.
Russia has remained Armenia’s largest trading partner since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Wider context: Last week, Armenia held elections in the disputed territory in a move condemned by Azerbaijan and Turkey. The United States and the European Union said they did not recognize the legitimacy of the elections.
Coinciding with the military exercises, on Sunday the Biden administration reiterated its call on Azerbaijan to open two corridors to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been under a crippling blockade since December.
“The use of force to resolve disputes is unacceptable,” the State Department said in a press release.
“The United States further reaffirms the only way forward is peace, dialogue, and the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it read.
Armenian authorities in Karabakh announced on Saturday that one of the roads, the Lachin corridor, would be opened to allow supplies to flow from Baku, a decision confirmed by Azerbaijan.
Baku’s armed forces chief of staff visited Ankara to meet with Turkey’s new defense chief Yasar Guler on Monday.
Know more: Read Amberin Zaman’s reporting from southeastern Armenia as fears began mounting in January amid the blockade.