Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan sets up checkpoint on Armenian border

2023-04-23T23:41:22.590Z

Highlights: On Sunday, April 23, Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, which is the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh province, disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The installation of this checkpoint completes the blockade imposed by the country since December 12, 2022, isolating almost from the rest of the world more than 100,000 Armenians living in the secessionist province. Baku is trying by these means to force Armenia to sign a peace treaty, by which it would recognize Nagorny Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan.

On Sunday, April 23, Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, which is the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh province, disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan sets up checkpoint on Armenian border

A Russian peacekeeper at the entrance to the Lachin corridor on December 27, 2022. (Illustrative photo) AFP - TOFIK BABAYEV

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

On Sunday, April 23, Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin, which is the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh province, disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The installation of this checkpoint completes the blockade imposed by the country since December 12, 2022, isolating almost from the rest of the world more than 100,000 Armenians living in the secessionist province.

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With our regional correspondent, Régis Genté

The footage, taken from a distance, shows military and other vehicles blocking the road just over the Hakari River. Thus, on 23 April, this checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh, landlocked in Azerbaijan, and Armenia appeared.

Since 12 December, the corridor has been blockaded by Azerbaijanis. This new checkpoint allows Baku to further strengthen its grip on Lachin. But above all, the Armenian Foreign Ministry points out, it allows Azerbaijan to demonstratively violate the November 2020 ceasefire agreement, brokered by Moscow, under which the said corridor should remain under the control of the Russian interposition force.

All indications are that Baku is trying by these means to force Armenia to sign a peace treaty, by which it would recognize Nagorny Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan. The latter had lost this region during the 1988-1994 war, but had almost regained it after the "second Karabakh war", in autumn 2020.

Yerevan is ready to sign this agreement by which it would renounce any territorial claim to the mountainous province, but not without certain conditions, such as security guarantees for the Armenians of Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan sets up checkpoint on Armenian border

Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan sets up checkpoint on Armenian border

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