OSCE Chairman-in-Office sends personal representative to Lachin corridor to report on the situation

YEREVAN, August 16. /ARKA/. Bujar Osmani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia and OSCE Chairman-in-Office has dispatched his Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk to the Lachin corridor to look into the situation on the ground.

"As a follow-up to my telephone conversations last week (with foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan), I, as OSCE Chairman-in-Office, have asked my Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk to visit the Lachin corridor and report to me on the current situation on the ground," Osmani said in a statement on X.

The OSCE Chairman also reiterated his call on Azerbaijan to ensure free passage through the Lachin corridor.

"Other routes should be opened in parallel. Humanitarian aspects should always prevail. Dialogue on political issues should continue and the OSCE stands ready to facilitate it," Osmani's statement said.

For more than eight months now, 120,000 Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have been under complete blockade of Azerbaijan with no food, medicine, fuel, gas or electricity.

The Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the rest of the world was initially blocked by Azerbaijani government-sponsored fake “eco-activists” on December 12, 2022.

Azerbaijan officially institutionalized the blockage of the road by an illegal checkpoint installation on April 23, 2023, grossly violating its international obligations.

Azerbaijan continues to demonstrate a willful disregard for the provisions of the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, the ECHR ruling of December 21, 2023, as well as ICJ orders issued on February 22 and July 6, 2023, calling on Azerbaijan to urgently “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.” -0-