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Armenian PM sees smooth functioning of Lachin Corridor as task of Russian peacekeepers

According to the prime minister, Azerbaijan is blocking the Lachin Corridor, seeking to "break the will of the Armenians to live on their land"

YEREVAN, January 10. /TASS/. Russian peacekeepers should ensure the unhindered functioning of the Lachin Corridor, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a press conference on Tuesday.

"The sixth point of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement reads that the legal obligations for the unimpeded operation of the Lachin Corridor rest with Azerbaijan and Russia. As for the Russian peacekeepers, they are the ones who must ensure the corridor's functioning," Pashinyan specified.

According to the prime minister, Azerbaijan is blocking the Lachin Corridor, seeking to "break the will of the Armenians to live on their land".

The Lachin Corridor is the only road linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. On December 12, 2022, a group of Azerbaijanis, who claimed they were environmentalists, blocked the Lachin Corridor, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent was temporarily stationed. Baku argued that the purpose of the protest action was not to block any road, and that civilian vehicles were free to move in both directions.

Yerevan viewed the move as a provocation by Baku aimed at creating a humanitarian disaster in the unrecognized republic. Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan announced earlier that Yerevan had called on the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the OSCE Minsk Group to send a mission to the Lachin Corridor. On December 14, 2022, Armenia demanded that the European Human Rights Court oblige Azerbaijan to unblock the Lachin Corridor. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a government meeting that Nagorno-Karabakh was experiencing a food shortage amid the blocking of the corridor.