“I’m pressing on Azerbaijan, including as recently as this week, to reopen that corridor. We’re working on that,” he told the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Blinken clearly referred to his March 21 phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during which he reaffirmed, according to the State Department, the “importance of reopening the Lachin corridor to commercial and private vehicles.”
Aliyev again claimed that the corridor was not blocked by Azerbaijani government-backed protesters and described reports to the contrary as “false Armenian propaganda.” He told Blinken that Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross have escorted thousands of vehicles through that road over the last three months.
Answering a question from pro-Armenian Senator Bob Menendez, Blinken said there are “real problems in the Lachin corridor with the ability of people, private citizens, commercial traffic to get what’s needed to the people in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Karabakh has been experiencing serious shortages of food, medicine and other essential items ever since Azerbaijani protesters blocked on December 12 the sole road connecting it to Armenia on ostensibly environmental grounds. The authorities in Stepanakert had to start rationing in January food staples such as sunflower oil, sugar, rice and salt.
The shortages have been compounded by disruptions in Armenia’s supplies of electricity and natural gas to Karabakh carried out through Azerbaijani-controlled territory. Baku reportedly blocked the gas supply late on Wednesday for the 13th time since the start of the blockade.
The continuing blockade has also disrupted much of economic activity in the Armenian-populated region with a population of up to 120,000 people. According to Karabakh’s leadership, as many as 9,000 local residents have lost their jobs since December.
The United States as well as the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called on Azerbaijan to lift the road blockade.
The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Kristina Kvien, made a point of visiting an Armenian border checkpoint leading to the Lachin corridor earlier this month. Another senior U.S. diplomat made clear, meanwhile, that Washington is not considering imposing sanctions on Baku because of the blockade.
