A group of Azerbaijani environmental activists is blocking the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to the rest of the world. The humanitarian situation worsens day by day for more than 120,000 people deprived of the essentials, the Greek City Times writes.
"'Vegetables and fruits, dairy products, sugar, salt... We lack almost everything!" For Narine Grigoryan, a laboratory technician in Stepanakert, the consequences of weeks under the blockade are evident in the empty shelves of supermarkets. "It is almost impossible to find anything and local production cannot meet the needs of the population," the Armenian explained.
The situation has been deteriorating day by day since December 12. That's when a group of Azerbaijani environmental activists blocked the Lachin corridor, the only road between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The Lachin corridor is the real "umbilical cord" for the Armenian-populated enclave, completely surrounded by Azerbaijan, which has explicitly agreed to have the corridor controlled by Russian peacekeepers under the 2022 cease-fire agreement.
Under normal conditions, 400 tons of food and other basic products are delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh every day. After difficult negotiations, the International Red Cross was able to send ten tons of humanitarian cargo from Armenia on December 25: medicines, baby food. According to the NKR Ministry of Health, this covered the demand for ten days.
Although Baku insists that the blockade is a response to its civil society initiative, investigations, such as the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty investigation, reveal a link between so-called Azerbaijani "eco-activists" and the Azerbaijani government.
But there is more. International organizations such as Human Rights Watch have condemned that the region has once again been deprived of gas for several days. The supply depends solely on the will of Azerbaijan, as part of the infrastructure passes through territories that have come under Baku's control since the war in 2020.
"Once again, the current situation shows the importance of guaranteeing free and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance and international human rights missions to all areas and people, including those residing in Nagorno-Karabakh," stressed the commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe in its declaration of December 20. However, the region still lacks the presence of both international organizations and UN agencies.
The situation in the Lachin corridor and the restoration of free movement were also on the agenda of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on December 20, which explicitly called for the immediate and unconditional opening of the corridor.
"As long as the blockade continues, all these calls and statements by human rights organizations and countries must be followed by real action on the ground," Gegham Stepanyan, Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh, told GARA from Yerevan. He is one of 1,100 people still unable to return home due to road closures.
Stepanyan speaks of "staged environmental actions that are part of Azerbaijan's state policy and that seeks ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh." The officer recalls the cases of peaceful civilian killings, infrastructure disruptions, gas cuts, harassment of agricultural activity, and psychological pressure from Azerbaijan since the 2020 ceasefire.
“We have not seen any constructive dialogue so far. On the contrary, we only suffer from hatred towards Armenians at the state level," laments Stepanyan, who rules out any possibility that the enclave will one day pass under Azerbaijani jurisdiction.
Arayik Harutyunyan, the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, is also wary of Azerbaijan's ecological claims. "On December 3, after blocking the only highway connecting Artsakh with Armenia for the first time, the Azerbaijani side, through the Russian peacekeepers, transmitted written proposals to the Artsakh authorities that had little to do with environmental issues and were completely unacceptable," the Nagorno-Karabakh leader said.
One of them could be the future of Ruben Vardanyan, the current Nagorno-Karabakh state minister. On December 23, at a press conference of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, the Azerbaijani asked Vardanyan to leave the region "as soon as possible.
Russian-Armenian businessman and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan renounced his Russian citizenship and moved to Nagorno-Karabakh in early September. A month later, Vardanian was appointed state minister of the republic.
"I will not go anywhere, I will not give in to Azerbaijan's demands," Vardanyan announced during the nationwide demonstration in Stepanakert on December 25. Tens of thousands of people then gathered to raise their voices about the blockade and human rights violations.
Whether the demands are environmental or political, the humanitarian situation on the ground is deteriorating day by day.
On December 24, a group of Armenian civic activists went to a closed section of the road where a roadblock of Russian peacekeepers is located. In a live broadcast posted on the Internet, Tigran Petrosyan, leader of an opposition political party, urged the Russian side to fulfill its obligations under the November 9 trilateral statement and secure the Lachin corridor.
The Russians then responded that the road would open on December 26. This did not happen, and the protest resumed on the 27th. "The situation on the ground is serious. We need to resist and not make concessions, as Baku will continue with new demands," Petrosyan said.
