Armenian Foreign Ministry Calls on Russia to Fulfil It’s Obligation and Eliminate Lachin Corridor Blockade

YEREVAN — The Armenian Foreign Ministry has condemned in a statement the installation of a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan (which is the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia) and called on Russia to eliminate this blatant violation.

The statement reads as follows: On April 23, 2023 the authorities of Azerbaijan, grossly violating provision 6 of November 9, 2020 Trilateral statement, have already officially blocked the Lachin corridor, taking steps to install a checkpoint in the corridor in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

This step carried out by the armed forces of Azerbaijan today cannot even be considered as another provocation of Azerbaijan: it is really a flagrant violation of one of the fundamental provisions of November 9, 2020 Trilateral statement, aimed at the consistent implementation of Azerbaijan’s policy of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and the complete annihilation of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. The continuous illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor since December 12, 2022 under fabricated environmental pretexts and the installation of a checkpoint under false and groundless pretexts today are the continuation of the consistent implementation of this planned policy.

This action is being carried out against the unequivocal statements of the international community and especially the legally binding decision of February 22, 2023 of the International Court of Justice. Moreover, the authorities of Azerbaijan do not make an effort to fulfil the well-known agreements or even to cover up its continuous violations of the fundamental norms of international law and in every possible way aggravate the regional situation, preparing the ground for the use of large-scale force.

The Republic of Armenia, as a signatory to the November 9 Trilateral statement, considers this step of installation of a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan unacceptable. This, as well as the previous similar actions of Azerbaijan, combined with continuous Armenophobic and threatening rhetoric, are aimed at scuttling the negotiations on the document on the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

We call on the Russian Federation to finally fulfil the obligation under provision 6 of the Trilateral statement by eliminating the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor and ensuring the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from the entire security zone of the corridor, and we call on the member states of the UN, having a mandate for the preservation of international security, to clearly record Azerbaijan’s actions undermining the regional security and take effective steps towards the unconditional implementation of the decision of the ICJ, the highest international legal body.