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    Categories: 2023

Nagorno-Karabakh: Thousands Of People Demonstrate To Demand The Opening Of The Corridor To Armenia

Thousands of people are demonstrating on Friday, July 14, in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, to demand the reopening of the Lachin corridor, the only road between Armenia and this separatist region, closed this week by Azerbaijan, a noted a correspondent of Agence France-Presse. Around 6,000 protesters gathered in the city’s main square in the morning. The closure of the Lachin corridor, according to Armenia, raises the risk of a serious humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The day before, Minister of State Gurgen Nersisyan, an official from Nagorno-Karabakh, asked on social networks that Russia, which has had a contingent of peacekeepers on site since the end of 2020, to restore the traffic on the corridor. “The situation is terrible and will have irreversible consequences in a few days”, he added.

Azerbaijan announced on Tuesday that it had suspended traffic in the corridor on the grounds that drivers working for the Armenian branch of the Red Cross had made “contraband” of goods on this axis, which the International Committee of the Red Cross rejects.

On Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced that he will take part in negotiations with Azerbaijan on Saturday under the aegis of the European Union, while denouncing a “blockade” Nagorno-Karabakh illegal.

Read also: Armenia demands that international NGOs have access to Nagorno-Karabakh

Since December, Armenia has been alerting the international community to shortages of food and medicine caused by traffic restrictions on the corridor. In April, Azerbaijan announced the creation of a roadblock at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, for security reasons, while armed incidents between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces still occur regularly.

The two Caucasian countries have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since the late 1980s, resulting in two wars, the last of which, in 2020, saw the defeat of Armenian forces and significant territory gains for Azerbaijan. Part of the enclave, with an ethnic Armenian majority but located on the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, remains under the control of Armenian separatists, but it is now surrounded by territories held by Baku.

The World with AFP


https://globeecho.com/news/asia/nagorno-karabakh-thousands-of-people-demonstrate-to-demand-the-opening-of-the-corridor-to-armenia/

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS