Azerbaijan has announced the taking control of Berdzor (Lachin) town and neighboring two villages in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev announced on his Twitter page about this significant event for Baku. "The Azerbaijani army has been deployed in the city of Lachin, the villages of Zabukh [(Aghavno)] and [Nerkin] Sus have been taken under control," he wrote.
Meanwhile, the issue of the alternative motorway to link Artsakh to Armenia is not so clear. First, Azerbaijan, violating the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, unilaterally "decided" and "implemented" the new route. The authorities of Armenia and Artsakh categorically deny any assumption about verbal agreements in this regard.
It turned out that Ilham Aliyev can announce Azerbaijan’s control over Berdzor on the birthday of his wife, Mehriban.
As for the aforesaid alternative motorway, Azerbaijan claims to have built its section, and the problem is in the section that Armenia shall build. It is planned that this motorway will be ready by the spring of 2023, but for now a dirt road needs to be used.
Artsakh Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Hayk Khanumyan announced Thursday that "the new route of the Berdzor corridor will be launched in the first week of September this year."
There are only five checkpoints of Russian peacekeepers in this area, and there is no guarantee that Azerbaijan will not resort to provocations again.