On Friday, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of adopting a policy of “ethnic cleansing” in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inhabited by a majority of Armenians, which has been the subject of a decades-long dispute between the two countries, according to the French Press Agency.

On April 23, Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin Pass, the only road linking Armenia with the breakaway region.

The move came after Azerbaijani environmental activists blocked the road for months, which, according to Yerevan, led to a humanitarian crisis in the mountainous enclave, which caused food and fuel shortages.

Azerbaijan stressed that civil transport is moving without hindrance through the Lachin corridor.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that “the humanitarian situation in Karabakh has deteriorated sharply,” after Baku cut off traffic on the road on Thursday.

He added, “Food supplies to Karabakh have practically stopped, and it is not allowed to transfer patients to hospitals in Armenia for medical treatment.”

And he considered that Baku’s actions “prove that Azerbaijan is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Karabakh.”

On February 22, the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, ordered Azerbaijan to guarantee freedom of movement on the road.

On May 24, Armenia asked the International Court of Justice to order Azerbaijan to open the vital corridor.

The two former Soviet republics fought two wars, the first in the early 1990s and the second in 2020, to control the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which unilaterally separated from Azerbaijan 3 decades ago.

After a lightning war that lasted 6 weeks, during which Baku took control of lands in the region in the fall of 2020, the two countries signed a cease-fire, according to which Armenia relinquished swaths of land it had controlled for decades.

The border areas between the two countries are still witnessing frequent skirmishes despite the ongoing peace talks between Baku and Yerevan, mediated by the European Union and the United States.

And when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Armenians in Karabakh separated from Azerbaijan, and the ensuing conflict killed 30,000 people.