Nathalie Loiseau, chair of the EU Parliament's defense sub-commission, visited the entrance of Lachin Corridor on June 21
“We saw with our own eyes the complete and illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan,” Member of European Parliament says.
“Blocking the Lachin Corridor is illegal and must be stopped,” said Nathalie Loiseau, the chair of the European Parliament’s security and defense subcommittee, who is in Armenia and joined the EU’s monitoring mission in Armenia on Wednesday visited the Lachin Corridor entrance.
“We approached the entrance to Lachin Corridor and saw with our own eyes the complete and illegal blockade of Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan,” Loiseau exclaimed when speaking to reporters.
“We heard about the increasing number of armed incidents and the invasion of the sovereign territory of Armenia. We learned about the incident in Yeraskh, where civilians were targeted. We also learned about the incident at the entrance to Lachin Corridor, where Azerbaijanis tried to raise a flag,” Loiseau added after her tour of the region with the EU monitors. She was referring to an incident on June 15 when Azerbaijani forces attempted to breach Armenia’s border and plant a flag there.
Nathalie Loiseau during a press conference in Yerevan on June 21
“I would like to send a strong message,” she emphasized. “As much as Armenia is devoted to peace, Azerbaijan is obliged to present evidence that it is also devoted to peace. The European Union is making efforts to facilitate the contacts between the leaderships of Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“We wanted to make sure and assess the situation ourselves and also see how the European Union’s civilian mission, which has been operating along the border for four months, is working,” the EU parliament member said. “Today we were in Goris, where we met with the governor of Syunik, the head of the community of Goris, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh located in Armenia and talked with them about the 44-day war and the blocking of the Lachin corridor.”
Loiseau said that the European Union is making efforts to reduce tension and the presence of the EU mission in Armenia should contribute to reducing those tension.
“The time has come for a lasting peace to be established. I want to reaffirm the position of the European Parliament: the blocking of the Lachin corridor is illegal and must be stopped,” she said.
“The rights and well-being of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh must be protected and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia must be respected. I will take this message with me to Brussels, I will testify about what we saw and heard while in Armenia,” Loiseau added.
She also called on European ambassadors accredited in Baku to refrain from accepting any invitation from the Azerbaijani government to an illegally located checkpoint, and remain “faithful to the terms of the ruling of the International Court of Justice,”
Loiseau also said that the European Parliament fully supports sending a fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor, adding that the matter was discussed during a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“First, there is a decision of the International Court of Justice regarding the unblocking of the Lachin Corridor, which must be properly implemented. Second, the European Parliament fully supports the idea of sending a fact-finding mission,” said Loiseau.
“The European Parliament also welcomes the idea of an international presence in general to fully protect the rights and interests of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” she added.
“We are also completely in favor of a UN Security Council resolution being adopted. And the sooner, the better it will be if the members of the UN Security Council prepare a draft of such a resolution,” Loiseau said.
Earlier on Wednesday Loiseau, along with the EU’s representative to Armenia, Andrea Wikorin, joined the EU mission leader in Armenia, Markus Ritter and toured the border region, including the entrance of the Lachin Corridor.