Armenia initiated the session in a bid to drum up stronger international pressure on Baku. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan attended and addressed it, saying that Yerevan expects the Security Council to condemn Baku, demand the immediate reopening of the Lachin corridor, send a fact-finding mission to Karabakh and provide humanitarian aid to the region’s struggling population.
Although most of its members, notably the United States and Russia, urged the lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade, the Council stopped short of adopting a relevant resolution or statement. This fact led some in Armenia to question the wisdom of initiating the meeting and sending Mirzoyan to New York.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry countered that the format of the meeting did not “presuppose the adoption” of any such document.
“Besides, only the 15 (permanent and non-permanent) members of the UN Security Council have the right to draft UN Security Council resolutions and initiate voting. Armenia, not being a member of the UN Security Council, does not have such authority,” the ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, said in written comments to the press.
Badalian insisted that the Security Council session was worth it because the international community could now pay more attention to “possible catastrophic consequences” of the worsening humanitarian situation in Karabakh. She also said Yerevan will continue to “work actively in the UN and other platforms” with the aim of achieving the reopening of Karabakh’s land link with Armenia and the outside world.
The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called on Azerbaijan to allow renewed commercial and humanitarian traffic through the Lachin corridor. Baku has dismissed their appeals.