Friday,
Armenia Rules Out Talks On New Lachin Corridor Regulations
• Nane Sahakian
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (R) and French Minister for Europe and
Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna at a joint press conference in Yerevan, April
28, 2023.
Yerevan has no intention to get involved in negotiations on any new regulations
regarding the Lachin Corridor after Azerbaijan officially blocked the only road
connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia recently, Armenia’s top diplomat said
on Friday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpart
Catherine Colonna in Yerevan, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stressed
that the status of the corridor was agreed upon in the Moscow-brokered ceasefire
agreement that put an end to a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war over
Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
The agreement placed Russian peacekeepers in charge of providing security for
Nagorno-Karabakh and ensuring free movement for its people along a
five-kilometer-wide strip of land connecting the mostly Armenian-populated
region with Armenia and known as the Lachin Corridor.
Citing Armenia’s “continued military supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh”, Azerbaijan
installed a checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor on April 23, tightening
the already existing blockade of the region that was effectively imposed by
government-backed Azerbaijani protesters back in December.
The protesters posing as environmental activists said today they were suspending
their action after blocking the road at a junction just off Stepanakert for 138
days. According to Azerbaijani media, their representatives said that the
establishment by Baku of a border checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin road
partly met their demands for control over the use of the region’s natural
resources.
Authorities in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh described the roadblock as illegal.
Russia also denounced Azerbaijan’s “unilateral actions” in the Lachin Corridor.
The United States, France and other Western powers voiced their concerns that
Azerbaijan’s move could fuel further tensions and undermine efforts by Yerevan
and Baku to reach peace in the region.
Mirzoyan stressed on Friday that Armenia supports full implementation of the
2020 deal.
“It concerns not only the agreements on the Lachin Corridor. All agreements
should be honored so that it becomes possible to have more serious achievements
in the Armenia-Azerbaijan settlement,” he said.
Mirzoyan also reiterated Yerevan’s position that Baku should have an
internationally visible dialogue with Stepanakert on the rights and security of
Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.
For her part, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Colonna emphasized
that Paris demonstrates full support for talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“France is not doing it alone, it is doing it together with the European Union,
the United States, keeping in touch with the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe and the UN, which can play a positive role in this
process,” Colonna said.
She said that the path of peace is complex and difficult to find. “But, as I
said in Yerevan and Baku, it is the only way that will make it possible to
achieve a just and sustainable peace and will make it possible to create new
prospects for the future of the two countries and their populations,” the French
minister said.
During her earlier meetings in Baku and Yerevan Colonna urged Azerbaijan to
comply with the order of the International Court of Justice that ruled in
February that Azerbaijan must “take all measures at its disposal to ensure
unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in
both directions.”
Official Baku denies blockading the Armenian-populated region, pledging to
ensure, in cooperation with Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region, all
“necessary conditions” for “a transparent and orderly passage of Armenian
residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan” in both directions.
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh dismiss such assurances, insisting that there must
be only Russian presence in the corridor under the terms of the Moscow-brokered
ceasefire agreement.
Receiving Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, the newly appointed commander of
the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh, in Yerevan on April 28,
Armenia’s Defense Minister Suren Papikian stressed the importance of efforts “to
achieve the unblocking of the Lachin Corridor as soon as possible.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian also urged Azerbaijan and Russia to
abide by the 2020 trilateral agreement to ensure free movement along the Lachin
Corridor when he spoke at a weekly cabinet session in Yerevan on Thursday.
Pashinian also called for a broader international presence in Nagorno-Karabakh
and the Lachin Corridor.
“Azerbaijan’s efforts to turn Nagorno-Karabakh into a new scaffold for Armenians
must be stopped, and the only reliable way of doing that is the presence of
representatives having a broad international mandate in Nagorno-Karabakh. As the
first step it is necessary that an urgent international fact-finding mission be
sent to Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor,” the Armenian leader
underscored.
French Official Urges Armenia, Azerbaijan To Maintain Ceasefire
• Artak Khulian
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna (in the center)
visited the Armenian town of Jermuk near the border with Azerbaijan on April 28,
2023.
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna urged Armenia
and Azerbaijan to maintain ceasefire as she visited an Armenian town near the
volatile border between the two countries on Friday.
Colonna’s regional tour that also included a stop in Baku comes amid heightened
Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions over a land corridor that connects
Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor on April 23, thus
tightening the already existing blockade of the Armenian-populated region that
was effectively imposed by government-backed Azerbaijani protesters back in
December.
Both in Baku and Yerevan the top French diplomat urged Azerbaijan to comply with
the order of the International Court of Justice that ruled in February that
Azerbaijan must “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement
of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”
Official Baku denies blockading the Armenian-populated region, explaining that
the checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin road was installed in response to
Armenia’s “illegal military supplies” to the region, a claim denied both in
Yerevan and Stepanakert.
Azerbaijan has also pledged to ensure, in cooperation with Russian peacekeepers
deployed in the region, all “necessary conditions” for “a transparent and
orderly passage of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan” in both directions.
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh dismiss such assurances, insisting that there must
be only Russian presence in the corridor under the terms of a Moscow-brokered
ceasefire agreement that put an end to a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in
2020.
During their meeting in Yerevan late on Thursday the French minister and
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian described “unilateral actions by
Azerbaijan” as “unacceptable.”
Pashinian’s press office also quoted Colonna as saying that France supports
Armenia “in the search for a just and sustainable peace.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian receives France’s Minister for Europe
and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna in Yerevan, .
While on her visit to Armenia on April 28 the French minister also travelled to
Jermuk, an Armenian resort town that was shelled by Azerbaijani troops during
last September’s deadly fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigorian accompanied Colonna on
the trip.
Edward Asrian, the chief of the Armenian Armed Forces’ General Staff, reportedly
presented to the senior French official the situation in Jermuk after last
year’s fighting that both sides blamed on each other.
Armenia says Azerbaijan occupied chunks of its sovereign territory after an
unprovoked aggression, which Baku denies.
Asrian said that the territory that Azerbaijani forces penetrated in the
direction of Jermuk made over 60 square kilometers, with the front of the
penetration stretching 11 kilometers wide and going up to 8 kilometers deep into
Armenian territory. He said both military and civilian infrastructure came under
shelling.
“Great damage was done to civilian infrastructure. The town of Jermuk suffered
significant damage,” the senior Armenian military official said.
During her trip to Jermuk the French foreign minister, in particular, wrote on
Twitter: “[I am] in Jermuk, with the observation mission of the European Union.
The European Union is helping to ease tensions and build prospects for peace.
The ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia must be respected in order to find
the way of trust.”
In February, the European Union deployed about 100 civilian monitors in Armenia
on a two-year mission to reduce the risk of a serious escalation along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. A smaller two-month-long EU observation mission had
already been deployed in Armenia following last fall’s clashes along its restive
border with Azerbaijan.
At their meeting yesterday Pashinian and Colonna also highlighted the importance
of “the effective activities of the EU observation mission in Armenia in the
context of ensuring security and stability in the region.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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