Since mid-December, Azerbaijanis posing as environmental activists demonstrating against illegal mines have been blocking a crucial road linking Armenia to Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-populated territory disputed by Baku and Yerevan. Due to the blockage, the separatist enclave of some 120,000 inhabitants is facing power and internet cuts, as well as problems with heating and access to food and medicine.
Lifting this blockage is a “priority”, assured Emmanuel Macron to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during a phone call. “The Head of State expressed France’s full solidarity with the Armenian populations who are facing growing humanitarian needs,” the French presidency reported. “He also said the priority for him is the restoration of free movement along the Lachin corridor blocked since December 12,” she added.
The French president wants to be on the diplomatic front line in this conflict, but he had remained relatively discreet publicly since a call on December 23 to his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, to whom he had asked to allow “free movement” between Nagorny Karabakh and the ‘Armenia.
Monday, he “reiterated his total commitment to the security of Armenia, and his determination to work for dialogue so that a lasting political solution is found in the region”, according to the Elysée. In their appeal, Emmanuel Macron and Nikol Pashinian also “welcomed the deployment” of the European observation mission set up in October along the border following mediation in particular by France, “which helps to stabilize the situation”.