Russia transferred the Lachin corridor to Azerbaijan. What does this mean for the Armenian Karabakh?
- Olga Prosvirova
- BBC Russian Service
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Russian peacekeepers have handed over to Azerbaijan control of the Lachin Corridor, a six-kilometer mountain road, an accessible key to the entire region. This road connects with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Two years in the “corridor”
The second Karabakh presidential war lasted 44 years and ended on November 10, 2020. In fact, it was the capitulation of Armenia.
Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan agreed on what to do with the Lachin corridor, which meets by land, approaching Armenia from Stepanakert (Khankendi), a parish of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh region. rep.
As a result of the war, Lachin, a small town on the southwestern slope of the Karabakh ridge, where several thousand people lived in Soviet times, returned to Azerbaijan almost three years later. The city and the very road from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh were controlled by Russian sentiment – in their five-year mandate with the possibility of extension.
At first, there was a situation: despite the fact that this territory is officially diplomatic, during the “transitional period” of penetration into Lachin without the consent of outstanding passport holders, only Armenian passports. accompanied by Russian peacekeepers.
“They were outraged at first. But we explained that these are the conditions of the settlement agreement. Under this agreement is the signature of the President. So please, – BBC in March 2021, the Russian worldview. – Usually, after the words, all disputes ended.
Conflicts on the mountain road often occurred only a few kilometers away. Passing by, the Jews demonstrated that this was their territory by hanging the national flag from the windows of cars. Armenian, if a representative parliamentary column, is usually generally recommended to have middle hours.
Over time, it became calmer: already in the fall of 2021, the passage along the Lachin corridor is open and open to cars. But movement along the corridor is still strictly controlled mood.
Then, in 2021, there were only 80 residents in Lachin. Many of them are often met with horror, as in the rich villages that come under the control of Azerbaijan, they give very little time to pack up and leave.
For the most part, there was nowhere to go. The few sensations of Lachin did not want to go anywhere. But now, maybe the weapon.
controversial road
A year and a half after the end of the war could be characterized as a time without peace and without war.
Local exacerbations are found mainly in the escalation of accusations in Azerbaijan, which in March of this year even took control of another settlement and rose into the conflict zone.
But the situation in Karabakh deteriorated significantly at the end of July.
Examples of the authorities of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic announced that the democrats are discovering the scale of the contact. Then the Russian peacekeepers reported on “three violations of the ceasefire” by Azerbaijan. After this, the parties began to accuse a friend of shelling. In skirmishes of several military men.
Some independent experts then pointed out that a new round of interconnection was connected with the fact that Ilham Aliyev wants to push Yerevan to resolve disputable issues as soon as possible. The time is good for this: while Russia is busy with the war in the conditions and we are coordinating the whole world, we decided to act more aggressively, without regard for consent.
The main unresolved issue rested on the same Lachin corridor, Azerbaijan wanted to get control over animals in the very near future.
On the sides marked by the end of the war, Armenia and Azerbaijan were to determine a plan for the construction of a new route bypassing Lachin. Russian peacekeepers had to move to a new road. Three years were given for this, and the term has not yet expired.
But the coordination of grinding for a long time is also important.
On August 3, after a strong aggravation, the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, called Baku’s demands on the Lachin corridor unlawful: he stated that Armenia had not yet agreed with the situation on one plan for the construction of a new road.
Azerbaijan was not embarrassed by this: by the time it was already part of its route, which starts on the border of the Lachin region with Armenia and matters from the Shusha (Armenian name of the city of Shushi) – Stepanakert highway. Now, as they said in Baku, the road is completely ready for the game.
Azerbaijan believes that Armenia has been deliberately delaying the approval of the plan and the construction of its section all this time. Yerevan effects, which should be discovered after the expiration of three years.
But after the aggravation of late July – early August, the process accelerated. In the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, it was announced that Azerbaijan would capture Lachin and the village of Zabukh (Akhavno) until August 5. A little later, they postponed it to August 25th.
people along the road
Armenians continue to live in the territories that went to Azerbaijan. Many of them cannot reach an agreement with their structures on resettlement.
The unrecognized republic promises temporary housing, but not everyone agrees to this. The temporary status of housing does not concern many, while others are outraged that all promises are only in words.
The “Caucasian Knot” (the media is recognized in Russia as a “foreign agent”) spoke with the mandatory conditions, which are in complete uncertainty. Many do not know where to go, whether they can stay and, if so, what will happen to them.
In early August, the authorities of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic announced by the Armenian government of Lachin and the villages of Sus and Ahavno (called Zabukh in Baku) that they must leave their homes by August 25: that is when the territory should be voluntarily sent under the control of Azerbaijan.
For the residents of the villages, this was a big surprise: many people who fled from there during the second Karabakh war returned to their homes, hoping that they would begin to live in their homes.
On August 6, journalist Lilit Shahverdyan passed through Lachin through the still active corridor when the NKR authorities told people to pack their things. Lachin is still guarded by Russian peacekeepers – journalists are not allowed to film in the city.
But she managed to talk with relatives of Ahavno. Locals, according to journalists, do not reach the overwhelming majority that the arrival of Azerbaijan is possible, but things are accumulating.
After the war of 2020, a school was again equipped in the village: the walls were repaired, the walls were painted, and the parties were updated. Teach visiting and new teachers from Armenia. Now school weapon leave.
People took out household appliances and burned unnecessary papers. In the Internet appeared videos where you can see how they rise in their homes so that they do not get to the locals. True, the authorities of the unrecognized republic warn that in exceptional cases people do not get access.
Lilit Shahverdyan told the BBC that Ahavno is blamed on the authorities of the unrecognized NKR, but the rights that Azerbaijan will probably leave no other way out. In the second half of August, Russian armored personnel carriers and checkpoints appeared at the entrance to Ahavno at the entrance to the village.
As an aid to internally displaced persons, the NKR tested 40,000 drams per person (about $99) and a certificate for 10 million drams (about $24,600) for the purchase or rental of housing. This money, the journalist says, would be taken for rent, but not for buying a house – especially when it comes to Armenia.
In addition, former residents of Lachin who received such certificates have encountered problems: Armenian banks are suspicious of such documents and often do not accept them.
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, does not care much about this. “People accidentally settled in the city of Lachin, the villages of Zabukh and Sus, must be withdrawn. It `s naturally. Being there is essentially a war crime because it is a compliance with the rules of Geneva admissibility. The occupying country cannot observe random settlement on the occupied lands,” – declared he.
On the eve of the transfer of the Lachin corridor, the question arose: how will the NKR communicate with Armenia if the road came under the control of Azerbaijan?
Lilit Shahverdyan, who visited the ministry, says there is an alternative way.
The same law does not provide for the transfer of voluntary powers to be used by the NKR authorities: people assume responsibility that goes beyond the already controlled Shusha and is under the control of Russian sentiments.
But the problem will not be completely resolved: Armenia and the NKR must still point to the new temporary corridor with electric poles and communication cables.
And for the residents of Karabakh, the main problem remains the gas pipeline: it partially spreads through the territory under the control of Azerbaijan, and this problem has not yet been resolved.