Yuri Kim, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, reiterated Washington’s “serious concerns over the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh” when she spoke to Armenia’s Ararat Mirzoyan early in the morning.
“We urge all sides to work together now to immediately and simultaneously open Lachin and other routes to get desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Nagorno-Karabakh,” she wrote in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Kim made the same point during her separate phone call with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. She described their conversation as “constructive.”
According to an Azerbaijani readout of the call, Bayramov denied the humanitarian crisis in Karabakh, saying that Baku has not been blocking the Armenian-populated region’s land link with Armenia and the outside world. He dismissed international calls for the unblocking of the Lachin corridor as “interference in our country’s internal affairs.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again discussed the situation in Karabakh in a September 1 call revealed by the U.S. State Department five days later. The department said Blinken insisted on the need for renewed traffic through the Lachin corridor “while recognizing the importance of additional routes from Azerbaijan.”
Despite struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities, most residents of Karabakh remain strongly opposed to the alternative supply line sought by Baku. They believe that it is aimed at legitimizing the blockade and helping Azerbaijan regain full control over Karabakh.
Armenia’s position on the compromise solution favored by the United States as well as the European Union is not clear.
The official statements on Kim’s phone talks with Mirzoyan and Bayramov did not say whether she also discussed mounting tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the Karabakh “line of contact.” Armenian officials say that Azerbaijan has been massing troops there in possible preparation for offensive military operations.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday urged the international community to take “very serious measures” to thwart Baku’s alleged plans. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry dismissed Pashinian’s appeal and said that Yerevan should end its “military-political provocations.”