Since the Azerbaijani conquests in autumn 2020, Nagorny Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian-controlled region in the South Caucasus that belongs to Azerbaijan, is only connected to the Republic of Armenia via the so-called Lachin Corridor.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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That the leadership in Baku, according to Armenian information, asked the Karabakh Armenians to clear the road running through the five-kilometer-wide corridor connecting the Armenian capital Yerevan with Stepanakert, the "capital" of the unrecognized "Republic of Nagorno Karabakh". now at the beginning of a new escalation that is said to have cost the lives of three people.

As always, both sides blame each other for what happened.

Stepanakert said Wednesday that artillery and drone fire by Azerbaijani units killed two soldiers and wounded 14 others.

Baku, on the other hand, accused the enemy of shelling Azerbaijani positions in the Lachin area;

a soldier was killed.

An "operation revenge" was then started and some hills were taken under control.

Baku wants to get the Lachin corridor under control quickly

On Tuesday, the “president” of the Karabakh Armenians, Araik Arutyunyan, announced that Baku, through the Russian peacekeepers overseeing the 2020 ceasefire, had sent a request to “open traffic via a new route” instead of the old route from Armenia to organize".

The ceasefire agreement provides for the establishment of such a route through the Lachin Corridor within three years of the agreement coming into force;

then the Russian troops will guard the new route and guarantee Baku safe traffic.

Appropriate work has been done, but no agreement has been reached on a plan so far, "therefore Azerbaijan's demand is unlawful," said the Secretary of the Armenian Security Council, Armen Grigoryan.

Armenian political scientists told the Moscow newspaper Kommersant that a new road proposed by Baku was not ready on the Armenian side, nor would it reach Stepanakert;

It was reminded that the gas, electricity and internet supply lines for the "Republic of Nagorny Karabakh" run along the old route.

Presumably, Baku's advance reflects the desire to bring the Lachin corridor under control more quickly.

This harshness was also evident in mid-July when the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Tbilisi, the capital of neighboring Georgia;

it was the first bilateral encounter of this kind since the outbreak of war in 2020, which cost the lives of more than 6,500 people.

However, the Azerbaijani representative, Jeyhun Bayramov, demanded "the withdrawal of the Armenian forces from the territory of Azerbaijan".

Nevertheless, in late July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a peace treaty in telephone calls to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani ruler Ilham Aliyev;

This did not happen even after the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

Aliyev sees himself on the upswing since the 2020 conquests;

The authoritarian and autocratic rulers in the West are also being held in new esteem.

The reason for this is the Ukraine war and efforts to reduce dependence on Russian gas.

Recently in Baku, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Aliyev thanked for increased "support", praised Azerbaijan as a "reliable, trustworthy partner", avoided criticism and avoided words like "democracy" and "peace".

Armenia is pinning its hopes on the Russian peacekeeping forces.

They recently accused Baku of violating the ceasefire, even after what happened on Wednesday.

Azerbaijani MP Rasim Musabekov told Kommersant that Baku acting independently "on the issue of Ukraine" and supplying more gas to Europe would "obviously provoke a negative reaction from Moscow".

But the Russian leadership cannot exert more than verbal pressure.

"We have strong nerves," said Musabekov.

"We will survive it.

But don't forget anything."