Since July 11, 2023, the Lachin Corridor, the only corridor connecting the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to the rest of the country, has been “temporarily closed” by the Azerbaijani army. While it depends on “90% of food products imported from Armenia”, according to its president Arayik Haroutiounian, this blockade puts the region in a situation that continues to worsen.
During a press conference on Monday, July 24, 2023, President Haroutiounian insisted that the situation had gone beyond the sole framework of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. “My concerns are humanitarian, not political. We have enough to last a few days, we count our provisions, we count the calories. »
In the shadow of regional ambitions
Responsible for drawing the borders of the Caucasus in the 1930s, Stalin was the first to attach Nagorno-Karabakh, made up of an overwhelming majority of Armenians, to Azerbaijan and not to Armenia. The region has since been subject to the tensions and greeds of the two countries.
The most recent war ended in 2020 with an Armenian defeat. After laying down its arms, the country conceded to Azerbaijan three regions under its control for 30 years: Shusha, Kelbajar and Lachin. Without them, Nagorno-Karabakh is geographically cut off from the rest of the country. In the ceasefire agreement, concluded in November 2020 under its aegis, Russia undertook to ensure the security of the corridor linking the enclave to Armenia.
Weakened by its war in Ukraine, Russia, Armenia’s historical ally in the Caucasus, has proved unable to keep its commitment. This failure has, for the first time, been openly denounced by Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia’s shortcomings enabled Azerbaijan to set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor from December 2022, then to prevent any passage, including that of Red Cross humanitarian trucks since last July 11.
Azerbaijan is taking Nagorno-Karabakh hostage to push its advantage in negotiations with Armenia. The situation in the separatist region is worsening daily and the dead are beginning to be counted. Now under Western mediation, discussions for a peace treaty continue and Armenia appears weakened. For the first time, its prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said he was ready to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan, under certain conditions.
Self-determination as a last resort
This recognition would upset the geopolitics of the region. Armenia would abandon the 140,000 souls of Nagorno-Karabakh, who would then fall under the control of the Azerbaijani regime of authoritarian Ilham Aliyev.
Open to discussing the cession of the enclave, the Armenian Prime Minister is criticized by his Nagorno-Karabakh counterpart: “I call on Armenia to refrain from taking positions that can harm the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations”, declared the latter. Without this ally, usually the most involved, the separatist region underlines the gravity of the situation so that others take up its cause: “Nagorno-Karabakh asks for help from international actors. We are on the way to extermination. »
The numerous calls for the lifting of the blockade – the International Court of Justice and several Western capitals have taken sides in this direction – remain for the moment without effect. Increasingly isolated from Armenia, to which his region wanted to be attached, the president of Nagorno-Karabakh is playing the independence card: “Armenians and Armenia cannot take away our right to self-determination. »