Reporting
Nagorno-Karabakh: by closing the Lachin corridor, Azerbaijan puts pressure on the Armenians
A protester holding the Armenian national flag in front of Russian peacekeepers blocking the road outside Stepanakert, capital of Azerbaijan's self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh region, on December 24, 2022. © DAVIT GHAHRAMANYAN/ AFP
Text by: Pierrick Bonno Follow
4 mins
In 2020, a peace agreement ended six weeks of war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which had allowed Azerbaijan to reconquer several territories.
Today, Baku is still maintaining the pressure.
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From our special envoy to Armenia,
Snow covers the steeple of a church that overlooks the entire city.
We are in Goris, 20,000 inhabitants, just a few kilometers from the
border between Armenia and Azerbaijan
.
Officially, the Nagorno-Karabakh war has been over since November 2020, but it is enough to push the door of a small hotel to understand that the peace agreement is not being respected.
Anaït lives here with fourteen other displaced people.
“
At the beginning of December, we had to leave Nagorno-Karabakh to go to the hospital in Yerevan.
My husband has a lung disease,
says this Armenian.
But when we wanted to go home a fortnight later, the road was closed.
So we spent two weeks in Yerevan and then the government sent us here until we could go home.
»
Already tens of thousands displaced in Armenia
On December 12, Azerbaijan decides to
close the Lachin corridor
, the only road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Since then, no one has passed and those who have remained there are suffering from food and gas shortages.
According to Gheram Stepanian, the objective is clear: to empty the enclave of its inhabitants.
“
This is not an isolated episode of Azerbaijan's hateful and criminal policy.
The regime seeks to frighten, intimidate the population of Nagorno-Karabakh,
explains Gheram Stepanian, Armenian mediator of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ultimate goal of all this criminal action is to force Armenians out of their homes.
It is a very clearly identified tactic, a very clear policy of ethnic cleansing.
»
These new exiles from Nagorno-Karabakh join the tens of thousands of Armenians who never returned home after the 2020 war. Many have chosen to settle in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.
This is the case of Liane who fled her village two and a half years ago.
She is now unemployed, as a refugee in her own country.
“
Frankly, at the moment, our biggest problem is finding a place to live,
confides this mother.
It's hard to find an apartment to rent in Yerevan.
And even when you manage to find it, the price is very high.
So we have to change places all the time, because landlords are increasing their rents.
And then, there is not enough work for everyone.
In the beginning, the government helped us, but now it's over.
»
MEP François-Xavier Bellamy in support of Armenians
In a local association in the capital, volunteers in exile try to bring the culture of Nagorno-Karabakh to life.
A dozen children sing a traditional Armenian song.
Arman is not 10 years old and he still remembers the morning when he had to suddenly leave his village which has since been taken over by Azerbaijan.
“
Mom and Dad woke me up telling me the war had started.
We could already hear bombs passing over our house
, recalls the child.
I got dressed quickly and with the whole family, we left without taking anything with us.
My father took us to another village, to his brother's and he went to fight,
continues Arman.
But we were still not safe so we came here to the capital.
»
A French MEP visiting Yerevan listens carefully to the young boy's story.
According to LR François-Xavier Bellamy, the international community is not mobilizing enough for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“
By our silence, during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, we encouraged Mr Aliyev [the Azerbaijani president] and his regime to continue their offensive,
explains François-Xavier Bellamy.
In reality, we have led people to believe that violence can prevail over the law and that violence can pay.
And I think that was obviously a very dangerous precedent, including when you look at what happened in Ukraine.
»
MEP François-Xavier Bellamy met with residents of Nagorno Karabakh stranded in southern Armenia and in the capital Yerevan.
© Pierrick BONNO / RFI
The French parliamentarian asks the European Union in particular to put an end without delay to the gas supply contract that Brussels has signed with Baku.
► To read also
:
Haut-Kabarakh: "We must worry about a resumption of hostilities"
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