Artsakh residents at Azerbaijan’s border checkpoint (Azerbaijan Public TV)
Several dozen Armenians from Artsakh were among those permitted to cross the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor this week, for the first time since Azerbaijan tightened its blockade of the route in mid-June.
The first group, which traveled on August 21, consisted of 41 Russian citizens born in Artsakh and students enrolled in Armenian universities who are starting classes this fall. They were escorted to Azerbaijan’s checkpoint along the Berdzor Corridor, the sole route connecting Artsakh with Armenia, where they were subjected to inspections of their passports and luggage by Azerbaijani border guards. They then walked across the bridge to board cars on the other side of the checkpoint that drove them into Armenia. A second group traveled on August 22.
Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh started over eight months ago on December 12, 2022, when government-sponsored protesters posing as eco-activists closed the Berdzor Corridor. They ended their protest on April 23, 2023, when Azerbaijan set up an illegal military checkpoint along the corridor, placing all movement between Armenia and Artsakh under the control of Azerbaijani border guards.
For months, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Russian peacekeeping mission were the only entities allowed to travel between Armenia and Artsakh. They delivered essential supplies in response to dwindling resources of food and medicine. The ICRC also transported medical patients from Artsakh to Armenia for emergency operations and necessary treatment. In mid-June, however, Azerbaijan barred the ICRC and Russian peacekeepers from crossing the border checkpoint to deliver humanitarian aid, precipitating a humanitarian crisis in Artsakh.
Azerbaijan has also periodically obstructed the ICRC from transporting medical patients. On August 22, the ICRC evacuated seven patients from Artsakh, and escorted seven more patients back home from Armenia.
Artsakh authorities welcomed the movement of 41 people across the Berdzor Corridor this week, calling it a “positive development,” yet noted that there are many individuals stuck on either side of the border who are still waiting to cross. They include Artsakh residents who have been stranded in Armenia since the start of the blockade and 333 medical patients requiring urgent treatment awaiting transportation by the ICRC to Armenian medical facilities.
“These figures don’t even include the numerous others seeking to move for various humanitarian, employment and personal reasons,” said the NKR InfoCenter, Artsakh’s official news outlet. Artsakh authorities also criticized the “humiliating conditions” at the checkpoint and “illegal surveillance of and obstacles for the citizens of Artsakh.”
Helen Dadayan’s relatives are among those waiting to cross the Berdzor Corridor. Dadayan, an Artsakh resident from the town of Chartar, was stuck in Armenia since the start of the blockade, separated from her family. She died in a car accident on the Yerevan-Gyumri highway on August 13.
Her relatives gathered in front of the ICRC office in Stepanakert on August 19 to demand that her remains be repatriated to her home in Artsakh.
“Helen’s remains have been in the Goris morgue for about a week now. The ICRC has been delaying its response for a long time. We have come here to ask them to do their job and, at the very least, provide us with a reason for the delay,” Helen’s brother Nver Stepanyan told a local reporter. “If that doesn’t work out, then they should negotiate so that the parents can go and participate in the funeral.”
Artsakh authorities further accused Azerbaijani journalists of filming Armenians crossing the checkpoint for “propaganda purposes.” Armenians are met at the checkpoint with large numbers of Azerbaijani journalists from state-controlled media. The journalists closely follow them with cameras as they walk through the checkpoint, approach the border guards for passport checks and luggage inspection, and board their vehicles. Azerbaijani public media disseminates these videos as evidence that there is no blockade and the corridor is open.
Azerbaijani public television reported that “up to 60 Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh with Russian passports” traveled to Armenia.
“These people supported separatism in Azerbaijan,” an Azerbaijani reporter said from the checkpoint. “Yet, the Azerbaijani side provides them an opportunity to go to any destination of their choice without barriers, totally safely.”
Journalist Lindsey Snell called this a “repugnant practice.”
“Azerbaijani state-run media films each time Armenians are allowed to pass the Lachin corridor. They don’t give consent, and they’re too terrified to object,” Snell wrote on social media, sharing a video of an Armenian woman at the border checkpoint breaking down in tears.
“As a security sector reform specialist with experience in several countries in three continents, I can say that this is psychological abuse of Nagorno-Karabakh underage children by Azerbaijani security services, supported by female journalists,” foreign policy consultant Sossi Tatikyan wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, tensions along the borders of Artsakh and between Armenia and Azerbaijan have also been escalating. Artsakh authorities have regularly reported shootings of Armenian farmers working in their fields as well as agricultural equipment by Azerbaijani soldiers, forcing farmers to halt their work. Artsakh leadership calls this a tactic to aggravate the food shortage caused by the blockade. Meanwhile, Armenian soldier Vanik Ghazaryan was killed on August 21 after Azerbaijani soldiers opened fire on Armenian military positions near the border village Akhpradzor. Armenia and Azerbaijan regularly accuse each other of ceasefire violations along their shared border.
Last week, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Artsakh arising from the blockade, at Armenia’s request. Nearly all of the 15 member countries of the Security Council called for the reopening of the Berdzor Corridor and immediate resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries. Azerbaijan, meanwhile, denied that Artsakh is under blockade. The Security Council did not release any resolutions or statements following the meeting.