The Lachin corridor, the only road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh and which passes through Azerbaijani territory, has been cut for seven months. Until July 11, only Red Cross convoys still allowed the population of the enclave, mostly Armenian, to use the road to receive treatment at the Yerevan hospital or find relatives. Since that date, however, a new turn of the screw by the Azerbaijani authorities, who claim “smuggling” activity by the Armenian branch of the committee, has prevented any movement of ICRC vehicles.
“Despite persistent efforts, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is currently unable to deliver humanitarian assistance to the civilian population through the Lachin Corridor or any other route, including Aghdam “Said Tuesday, July 25 the international organization in a press release. These operations are however “essential in the region”, specified its director for Eurasia, Ariane Bauer, recalling that the Azerbaijani blockade has created in seven months a serious humanitarian crisis within the enclave, with shortages of food and medicines, as well as frequent power cuts.
On July 14, Azerbaijan authorized the Red Cross to resume medical evacuations from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. 34 patients were able to be transported. However, medicines and foodstuffs, in serious shortage in the enclave, could not be delivered for “several weeks”, thus depriving “tens of thousands of people” of “vital medicines and essential products”. “Fruits, vegetables and bread are increasingly scarce and expensive, while some other food products such as dairy products, sunflower oil, cereals, fish and chicken are not available”, again alerts the ICRC.
“Our humanitarian aid convoys are a lifeline for the population of this area,” the statement said. “As these convoys are blocked, we fear that the humanitarian situation will deteriorate further (…) It is a question of saving lives”.
Tuesday evening, two large simultaneous demonstrations were held in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia and Stepanakert, that of Nagorno-Karabakh, to denounce the Azerbaijani blockade. The day before, the president of Artsakh – Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh – Arayik Harutyunyan had held a press conference to alert on the violations by Azerbaijan of its international obligations, taken within the framework of a ceasefire agreement fire at the end of a 44-day war in 2020.
“Deaths of newborns and elderly patients with chronic diseases are already being reported. They are the direct or indirect consequence of the blockade”, began the president in front of the journalists, before listing the multiple consequences of the blockade. For lack of fuel, 80% of the agricultural work could not be carried out. Public transport has almost completely ceased. On the health side, the number of deaths and complications in unborn children and newborns has doubled. Anemia in pregnant women has reached 90%. All examinations and planned operations have ceased. For 198 days, Azerbaijan has interrupted the supply of electricity from Armenia to Artsakh. Finally, “not a kilogram of food has entered Artsakh for 40 days”.
While the Red Cross called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to find a “humanitarian consensus” to allow aid to resume, Baku called the statement “political exploitation”. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, while blaming Armenia for the blocking of peace talks, made his terms clear: “Carabakh Armenians must either obtain Azerbaijani citizenship or find another place or live”. “My position is this – let everyone hear it, he said again in May on his YouTube channel. The Armenian authorities as well as the forces that support them today, no one can influence our will. We proved it, during and after the war (in 2020, Ed). And if necessary, we will prove it again”.