01:47, 5 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan violated on Tuesday an agreement reached with Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) and barred a group of Nagorno Karabakh Armenians – including children – from returning home after being stranded in Armenia due to the blockade of Lachin Corridor.

“27 civilians separated from their families for several months – including elderly, children and people with disabilities – were en route from Armenia’s Goris to Stepanakert on April 4, around 15:30, under an agreement with and accompanied by the Russian peacekeepers,” Nagorno Karabakh’s Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan said in a statement. “Despite a previously reached agreement on the return, the Azerbaijani government agents posing as eco-activists in the blockaded section of the Goris-Stepanakert highway in the Shushi section barred the passage of the Russian peacekeepers’ vehicles carrying the civilians. This resulted in the citizens being stranded there for over five hours. The vehicles are now returning to Goris after ineffective negotiations between the Russian side and the Azerbaijanis.”

Some of the Azerbaijanis even entered one of the vehicles.

During that time, four civilians in the cars felt sick and three of them lost consciousness. The Russian peacekeepers took them to the Republican Medical Center in Stepanakert. The remaining 23 people are returning to Goris.

Stepanyan added that this incident once again proves  the Azerbaijani authorities’ “explicit and obvious” conduct of lying and misguiding the international community with its fake narrative claiming that there is no blockade.

“Furthermore, by allowing people to exit Artsakh in different ways, but banning entry, Azerbaijani authorities are explicitly carrying out ethnic cleansing, as Ilham Aliyev had admitted in his January 10 statement,” Stepanyan said.

He added that while hundreds of civilians in Goris are deprived of the opportunity to reunite with their families, Azerbaijan is exploiting the atmosphere of impunity and is not cooperating neither with the Russian peacekeepers, nor the ICRC or other international organizations over this issue.

Stepanyan added that the reason of Azerbaijan’s brazen behavior and disregard for the ICJ ruling and calls from the international community is the impunity, the disregard for the peacekeeping mission, and the absence of targeted and punitive measures by all international actors.

The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan on February 22 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. The Lachin Corridor has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022.  Azerbaijan has been ignoring the ICJ ruling and multiple calls by the international community to open the corridor. 

Nagorno Karabakh healthcare authorities later reported that the four people – all women -  who were taken to the Stepanakert hospital after feeling sick and losing consciousness in the Lachin Corridor are in non-life threatening condition after receiving treatment. 

Update shows information from healthcare authorities.