Emmanuel Macron concerned about the situation in the Caucasus. During a telephone conversation with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Head of State “expressed his deep concern at the renewed tension in the South Caucasus” and called for “allowing free movement on along the Lachin Corridor”.
The French President also stressed “the urgency of guaranteeing unhindered access for humanitarian organizations and United Nations agencies to the affected populations” of Nagorny Karabakh.
“President Aliyev has said his intention to ensure free movement in the corridor”, according to the French presidency.
Armenia accuses Baku of deliberately blocking this vital axis
For more than a week, Azerbaijani activists have blocked the Lachin corridor, the only road linking Nagorny Karabakh to Armenia, claiming to protest against illegal mines in the region.
Yerevan accuses Baku of having staged these protests and of deliberately blocking this road. Accusations rejected by Azerbaijan, which ensures that it is always possible to circulate on this vital axis.
Armenia also accuses of inaction the Russian peacekeepers deployed there since November 2020, after a six-week war between Baku and Yerevan, while Russia is monopolized by its military intervention in Ukraine.
Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed in the early 1990s, during the breakup of the USSR, over control of Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-majority enclave that seceded from Azerbaijan.
This first conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives, ended in an Armenian victory. But Azerbaijan took its revenge in a second war that claimed the lives of 6,500 people in the fall of 2020 and allowed Baku to retake many territories.