Baku announced the suspension of traffic on the Nagorno-Karabakh Lachin corridor on Tuesday, citing 'smuggling' activity on the part of the Armenian branch of the Red Cross.
Pressure is rising again in the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. On Tuesday, July 11, Azerbaijan announced the suspension of road traffic in the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Armenia to this separatist territory, at the heart of a thirty-year conflict between Baku and Yerevan.
Azerbaijan says it took this measure because of "multiple smuggling attempts" via this checkpoint by vehicles belonging to the Armenian branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In particular, border guards claim to have seized, between July 1 and July 5, around ten cell phones and hundreds of packs of cigarettes during search operations in these vehicles and have accused the NGO of failing to take steps to prevent these "illegal actions." The border crossing will have to remain closed until the "necessary investigations" are completed, they said. A criminal investigation has been opened.
The ICRC immediately denied wrongdoing, claiming that "no unauthorized goods were found" in one of its vehicles. The Geneva-based organization added, however, that it "regret[ted] that without [its] knowledge four hired drivers tried to transport some commercial goods in their own vehicles which were temporarily displaying the ICRC emblem." "These individuals," it asserted, "were not ICRC staff members and their service contracts were immediately terminated by the ICRC.”
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