A new road will connect Armenia to the Lachin Corridor, which still remains blockaded

Azerbaijani forces have blocked a stretch of the Goris-Stepanakert highway that runs between the Aghavno and Tegh villages of Berdzor, which fell under Azerbaijani occupation last summer months before construction on a new road was completed. Azerbaijani media began spreading misinformation, claiming that the country’s forces had made advances in both Armenia and Artsakh.

Artsakh’s Interior Ministry on Thursday said that construction of a new road connecting Armenia to the Lachin Corridor was completed. That road goes through Kornidzor in Armenia’s Syunik Province and connects to Hin Shen in Artsakh. Road construction is also being completed on the Tegh-Kornidzor road.

The Tegh-Kornidzor road is functional and given the ongoing blockade of Artsakh can be used for humanitarian supplies traffic by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the authorities added.  The road will be controlled by the Russian peacekeepers near the Hakari river bridge.

The Lachin Corridor has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022.

Armenia’s National Security Service also issued a statement Thursday saying that beginning on April 1 the road connecting the territory of the Republic of Armenia to the Lachin Corridor will pass through the Kornidzor-Tegh route, only through the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

After August 2022, a part of the road connecting the Lachin Corridor to the Republic of Armenia again passed through the territory of Azerbaijan after the Kornidzor Bridge. That part of the road along its entire length and its adjacent territory was controlled by the Russian peacekeeping forces.

According to the agreements reached earlier between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the border guards of the two countries were to be deployed on both sides of the border along the aforementioned section in the last days of March.

The National Security Service said that in some places, the Azerbaijani side, without waiting for pre-determined adjustments, had started to position itself and began carrying out engineering works.

Armenia said that there are five such points, where the Azerbaijani side has set up border posts 100 to 300 meters away from its border. “It has now been agreed that cartographers from both sides will correct the situation,” Armenia NSS said in its statement, without elaborating on when the decisions were made between the two sides.

“The Armenian army did not have positions in the area in question, because positions are not located on the border line, but on the nearby strategic heights. And the protection of that part of the border should be transferred to the border guard troops, according to the agreement,” added the NSS.