Artsakh Resident Throws Explosives at Azeri Checkpoint Near Shushi

STEPANAKERT — A Russian-controlled corridor linking Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh was temporarily closed early on November 13 after a violent incident at a checkpoint.

Baku says the closure came after an explosive device was thrown at one of its checkpoints along the corridor, injuring three Azerbaijani soldiers.

The incident happened five days after one Armenian civilian was killed and three others were wounded by Azerbaijani forces while repairing water pipes just outside the Azeri-controlled town on November 8.

A video that appeared online after the border incident shows a man exiting a white car and throwing something toward an Azerbaijani checkpoint ahead of an explosion. Another video shows Russian peacekeepers detaining a man.

Early reports said the Stepanakert-Shushi-Berdzor road — known as the Lachin corridor — was closed to traffic in both directions. Later, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said the vital link had been reopened.

Authorities in Stepanakert said that a joint investigation with Russian peacekeepers was underway to establish the circumstances of the incident. In a statement they added, however, that the person who threw the explosive device did so in response to provocative actions of Azerbaijani soldiers.

Later in the day, the man involved in the incident was handed over to the law-enforcement bodies of Artsakh by Russian peacekeepers.

Artsakh’s Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan visited the man, born in 1975, at the Investigative Committee.

According to Stepanyan, “today’s incident should be considered in the full context of the situation created after the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020, i.e. the impunity of the Azerbaijani side for crimes against the people of Artsakh within a year after the ceasefire, regular and targeted violations of the rights and psychological intimidation of the people of Artsakh.”