The Armenian government sent the aid convoy on Wednesday in an attempt to alleviate severe food shortages in Karabakh. Azerbaijan, which tightened the blockade on June 15, condemned the move as a “provocation,” refusing to let 19 trucks loaded with about 400 tons of basic foodstuffs to pass through an Azerbaijani checkpoint.
John Allelo, the acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, joined Yerevan-based foreign diplomats in visiting an adjacent Armenian border area to inspect the long line of trucks awaiting permission to proceed to Stepanakert. The diplomats accompanied by Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian also met with Karabakh Armenian refugees.
In a Twitter post, the U.S. Embassy said Allelo “heard from displaced persons and regional officials about the suffering caused by continued blockage of the Lachin corridor.”
“We reiterate [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken’s call for an immediate reopening of the corridor to commercial and private traffic,” it wrote.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, likewise said on Wednesday that the Azerbaijani authorities should “guarantee safety and freedom of movement along the Lachin corridor.” He pointed to “dire consequences” of the blockade for Karabakh’s population. France and several other EU member states echoed Borrell’s appeal rejected by Baku.
“Unfortunately, there have been no positive developments so far,” Kostanian said, adding that the aid convoy will remain there “as long as it’s necessary.”
“We will try to ensure the reopening of the Lachin corridor by all political means at our disposal,” he told reporters. “The trucks will stay here for now.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday that Baku’s continued refusal to let the convoy through would testify to its “intention to commit genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh.” The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded by saying that the Armenian side should agree to an alternative, Azerbaijani-controlled supply route for Karabakh.
Borrell stressed that the proposed route rejected by Karabakh’s leadership “should not be seen as an alternative to the reopening of the Lachin corridor.”
Meanwhile, Armenia’s Vienna-based ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Armen Papikian, called on the international community to impose sanctions on Baku to ensure its compliance with a UN court’s February order to “ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”
