Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Sunday to protest against the blocking of a vital road to Armenia, AFP reported.

For nearly two weeks, Azerbaijani activists have blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, under the pretext of protesting against illegally placed mines in the region.

Yerevan accuses Baku of wanting to cause a “humanitarian crisis”, which Azerbaijan rejects, saying that the road is still passable.

This week, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to fulfill their duties in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The crisis that arose in the Lachin Corridor (which connects the Nagorno-Karabakh region with Armenia) has not yet been resolved. Due to the illegal blockade by Azerbaijan, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is extremely tense,” the Prime Minister of Armenia said during the government meeting on Thursday.

The people of Stepanakert said on Saturday that they are concerned about the situation, which they consider “serious”.

This new escalation of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan has caused deep concern at the international level.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday morning that a tripartite meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is trying to mediate, and the leaders of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan earlier this week on the sidelines of a regional summit in St. Petersburg was not planned. Petersburg, in the north-west of Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday asked his Azerbaijani counterpart to allow “free movement” between the separatist enclave and Armenia.

Armenia accuses Russian peacekeeping soldiers stationed in the area since November 2020 of inaction following the six-week war between Baku and Yerevan, while Moscow is concerned about its military intervention in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, called for an easing of tensions between the two countries during a meeting on Friday in Moscow with his Azerbaijani counterpart, which was boycotted by Yerevan.

In September, Armenia called on the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russian-led military alliance, to intervene, including with the help of armed forces, “to restore territorial integrity and withdraw Azerbaijani forces from the territory of Armenia.” “

In this regard, Armenia referred to the article of the CSTO treaty, which stipulates that if one member is attacked, all are considered to be attacked. Yerevan’s request comes after renewed fighting on the border, with Armenia accusing Azerbaijani troops of another incursion into its territory.

Both Moscow and the rest of the alliance ignored Armenia’s appeal, leading to a rare bow from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the latest summit of CSTO leaders.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an old problem, but without a clear solution

The essence of the problem concerns the famous Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan, but is inhabited mainly by Armenians. The Soviet authorities, as part of the tactic of dividing the population for the purpose of easier subjugation, almost a century ago created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region on the territory of Azerbaijan, although 95% of the inhabitants were Armenians.

The problems began in 1988, when the USSR no longer controlled all territories far from Moscow, and the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities wanted to unite with the then Armenian SSR, declaring their independence from the Azerbaijan SSR. In 1991, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis gained independence, and both countries were involved in bloody fighting.

The most serious conflict between the two states was the 1992-1994 war, as a result of which 20,000 to 30,000 people died. After this war, Armenia gained control over Nagorno-Karabakh and also occupied 20% of Azerbaijani territory in the enclave zone. Almost a million people had to leave the territories where they had lived all their lives.

Since 1994, there have been frequent clashes between the two countries, the worst of which was in 2016, when fighting lasted for four days. Nagorno-Karabakh remained part of the Azerbaijani state, but was ruled by pro-Armenian separatists supported by the government in Yerevan.

The war of 2020 and the increasing influence of Azerbaijan

The worst fighting since 1994 was in autumn 2020, when the war between the two states lasted six weeks, after the Azerbaijanis attacked with artillery, rockets and drones. Compared to the war of the first half of the 90s, the war of 2020 was fought with much more modern combat equipment, Azerbaijani drones were extremely effective.

More than 7,000 people died in the 2020 war, and Azerbaijan gained significant territories that were controlled by Armenia for the past 25 years.

Many said that the Russian-led mediation was not effective and did not lay the groundwork for peace in the region. Currently, Russia is involved in the war in Ukraine, where it is suffering heavy losses, so it cannot allocate enough resources to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The 2020 agreement called for Russia to send peacekeeping troops to Nagorno-Karabakh to somewhat deter future clashes.

Armenia emerged weakened after the conflict ended in November 2020, and the Azerbaijanis know they are in a strong position and want more territory, as well as road and rail links to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave surrounded by territories of Armenia, Turkey and Iran. . The Karabakh region remained under the very fragile control of the Armenians, as well as under the control of Russian peacekeeping forces.

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