Visits of International Partners to the Lachin Corridor Confirm No Talk of Provocation, Says Armenian Foreign Ministry Official

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently focused on demonstrating the situation in the Lachin corridor through visits from representatives of the international community, aiming to prove that Azerbaijan's claims about the corridor being open are not aligned with reality. This was emphasized by David Knyazyan, head of the Ministry's Multilateral Policy and Development Cooperation Department, in an interview with Armenpress.

Knyazyan highlighted the importance of international representatives witnessing with their own eyes that the corridor is completely closed to any type of humanitarian movement and reporting back to their capitals and the headquarters of international organizations. “This is crucial to show that Azerbaijan's statements claiming the corridor is open do not correspond to reality, and Azerbaijan is failing to fulfill its legal obligations set forth by international humanitarian law and the well-known rulings of the International Court of Justice,” he said.

“As you can see, today we have organized a visit for representatives of the UN office to Kornidzor to witness for themselves that Azerbaijan has completely imposed a blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh, along with all the resulting humanitarian consequences that we are witnessing today,” Knyazyan noted.

He expressed high hopes that international pressure on Azerbaijan would allow the reopening of the corridor and permit the entry of humanitarian cargo into Nagorno-Karabakh. “In this regard, we have positive developments; numerous statements have already been made by the European Union, the Council of Europe, and also by the UN and partner countries. The issue is widely covered by international media as well,” Knyazyan said.

He reiterated his hopes for international pressure on Azerbaijan, stating it could facilitate the reopening of the corridor for humanitarian deliveries, which are exclusively humanitarian in nature.

Knyazyan also noted that visits of international partners to the Lachin Corridor provided an opportunity to confirm that there is no talk of provocation, contrary to claims from the Azerbaijani side that the Armenian side is allegedly preparing provocation, seeking to politicize the situation. “There is no such danger. Humanitarian cargo has been held at a safe distance, and the Armenian side has properly informed the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation and, through them, the Azerbaijani side in advance, before the cargo was meant to arrive here. The fact that the cargo has been here for over a week without the possibility of being transferred shows Azerbaijan's destructive stance and its genocidal policy aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the people in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Knyazyan concluded.