Azerbaijani activists protest ‘carrying of weapons through Lachin corridor’

SHUSHA

Protesting along Lachin corridor, the road that connects Armenia to Karabakh, as Baku says its mining sites in the region are being illegally exploited by Yerevan, Azerbaijani activists also claim that Armenia is carrying weapons to Khankendi through the corridor.

Azerbaijan fought a six-week war with Armenia for control of the majority-Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

The conflict claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Yerevan cede territories it had controlled for decades, and Moscow send peacekeepers to Karabakh.

Despite the end of the large-scale fighting, tensions over their borders persist, as Khankendi region, located 10 kilometers away from Azerbaijan’s Shusha, is claimed to host around 25,000 Armenians.

Environmental activists opposed to illegal mining have been engaged in a standoff on the Lachin corridor, a 32-kilometer (20-mile) mountain road linking Khankendi to Armenia, since Dec. 12, 2022.

“This is our land. Khankendi region belongs to Azerbaijan, but we can’t go there. We will stay here until this issue is resolved. Russian convoys and the Red Cross pass this way, we are not blocking anyone. Why should we block the supplies, medicine, fuel and relief supplies going to Khankendi? These claims are a big lie,” said Regina Quluzade, one of the prominent activists in the region.

Yerevan says Azerbaijan since mid-December 2022 has been blocking the road, spurring shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

The protesters, on the other hand, also told Turkish media that Armenian forces are in the region. “They cannot pass weapons from Armenia to Khankendi.”

Russian peacekeepers on guard with armored combat vehicles do not allow the activists to go more than 20 meters towards both Khankendi and the Armenian border.

The Azerbaijani administration earlier sent an expert delegation to the region to inspect the mines that are “illegally operated” in Karabakh, through which the ores are transported to Armenia. However, the expert delegation was prevented from entering the region. Then, demonstrations by non-governmental organizations started on the Shusha connection of the road.

The Kızılbulak (gold) and Demirli (copper) mines in the region are operated by an Armenian company. These mines were transported to Armenia via the Lachin corridor under the control of Russian peacekeepers.

The two countries fought in the early 1990s for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict that left 30,000 dead and ended in an Armenian victory. Baku took its revenge in a second war fought in 2021, which claimed the lives of 6,500 people, retaking swathes of territory.

Russian peacekeepers were deployed there after the 2021 conflict.