European Interest

European Parliament: Azerbaijan must end the blockade of the Lachin corridor

Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0 Author: Aykhan Zayedzadeh
Signs used by the protestors during the 2022 blockade of the Lachin corridor.

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the respect for human rights in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Parliament deplores the severe humanitarian crisis caused by the current blockade of the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh by self-proclaimed environmentalists from Azerbaijan. With the corridor being the only road connecting the war-torn region with Armenia and the outside world, MEPs urge Azerbaijan to re-open it immediately, in order to enable freedom of movement and ensure access to essential goods and services for the most vulnerable.

The resolution underlines the need for a comprehensive peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan that guarantees the rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh (3). It calls for international organisations to be granted access to the area, in order to provide necessary humanitarian assistance, as well as for a UN or OSCE fact-finding mission to travel to the Lachin corridor to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground.

In addition, MEPs condemn the inaction of Russian “peacekeepers” present in the area and consider that these should be replaced by OSCE international peacekeepers. They also encourage the EU to ensure that Nagorno-Karabakh’s inhabitants are no longer held hostage by Baku’s activism, Russia’s destructive role or the inactivity of the Minsk group.

The resolution was adopted by show of hands.

It will be available in full here.

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