Artsakh ready to discuss with Russia installation of technical means of control in Lachin corridor - Foreign Minister
YEREVAN, March 3. /ARKA/. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is ready to discuss installation of technical control in the Lachin corridor with Russia, Artsakh Foreign Minister Sergey Ghazaryan said in an interview with the Public Television of Armenia.
During a last week visit to Azerbaijan Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia opposed Azerbaijan’s desire to set up a checkpoint in the corridor, which is the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, which has been blocked by Baku since last December 12.
Lavrov recalled that the November 9, 2020 statement made by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia calls for the free movement of solely civilian and humanitarian cargo and civilians through the Lachin corridor and setting up of any checkpoint there is not envisaged.
He said Baku's suspicions that the road may be used by Armenia to transport weaponry can be dispelled by technical means of control.
"The control over the corridor has been transferred to the Russian peacekeeping contingent, and the Azerbaijani side has no authority to exercise it," Ghazaryan said. He recalled that Russian peacekeepers in the Lachin corridor, prior to its closure, checked the documents of arriving and departing citizens and visually inspected vehicles for prohibited items.
"If such technical means will facilitate the work of Russian peacekeepers, we can discuss it in a bilateral format, that is, the Artsakh side with Russian peacekeepers. But the Azerbaijani side, even not directly, should not have access to this control procedure and should not be provided with relevant information," he said in a comment on Lavrov's proposal.
On December 12, 2022 Azerbaijan effectively cut off access to Nagorno-Karabakh, letting a group of self-described Azerbaijani “eco-activists” with no history of environmental advocacy barge through Russian peacekeepers to block the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Armenia’s leaders accuse Azerbaijan of seeking to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh by starving the local ethnic Armenian population and forcing it to leave.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in a January 10 TV interview: 'For those (of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians) who does not want to become Azerbaijani citizen, the road is not closed. They can leave. They can go on their own, or they can ride with Russian peacekeepers, or they can go by bus. The road to Armenia is open.” -0-
