Caucasus: Catastrophic situation in Nagorno-Karabakh: Baerbock appeals

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has appealed to Azerbaijan and Russia to ensure humanitarian access to the sealed-off Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“People in Nagorno-Karabakh must finally get what they need to live. The Lachin corridor must be free for humanitarian aid,” said the Green politician on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Toledo, Spain. The situation for the people in the enclave is catastrophic. For example, there is no food in supermarkets and pregnant women cannot get urgently needed medication.

Aid convoy fails to reach Nagorno-Karabakh

Shortly before Baerbock’s statements, French politicians announced that the attempt to send an aid convoy through the so-called Lachin Corridor to Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been sealed off from Azerbaijan for months, had failed.

The background to the blockade is the decades-long conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh between the South Caucasus countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia. While the region, which is mostly inhabited by Armenians, was able to break away from Azerbaijan in a bloody civil war in the 1990s, Azerbaijan regained control of part of the area in 2020 after renewed fighting via a ceasefire agreement. A Russian peacekeeping force is supposed to monitor compliance with the agreement. However, the ceasefire is fragile. Up to the end, there were repeated skirmishes between the two sides.

Baerbock said talks are now underway with the United States and other partners to find a solution. The topic was also put on the agenda of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting.