The sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia remained closed for a second day on December 13, leaving hundreds of cars stranded and ratcheting up tensions with Azerbaijan.
A group from Azerbaijan, described by state-run media there as environmentalists, blocked the road on December 12, sparking standoffs with Russian troops who are deployed in the area -- known as the Lachin corridor -- as part of the Russia-brokered cease-fire that ended the 2020 conflict between Azerbaijani forces and ethnic Armenian fighters.
The protesters say they are calling attention to what Azerbaijan says is illegal mining in Nagorno-Karabakh and the use of the road to transport the minerals to Armenia.
They are also demanding a meeting with the commander of the Russian force, Andrei Volkov, to find out why they were not allowed to enter the two mines on December 10.
The protesters’ action has left hundreds of Karabakh cars stranded at other sections of the highway, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported.
In a statement on December 13, the Armenian Foreign Ministry charged that Azerbaijan’s authorities organized the traffic disruption in an effort to “cut off Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia and thus the outside world” and drive out its ethnic Armenian population.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on December 12 that the United States remains focused on “the need to de-escalate tensions and on the need to set these two countries on the path to a lasting, comprehensive settlement.”
In Brussels, an EU foreign policy spokesman was quoted by Armenian Public Television as saying late on December 12 that the EU is closely monitoring “various developments taking place over the Lachin corridor” but lacks first-hand information about them. He urged both sides to show “restraint.”
Armenians and Azerbaijanis have increasingly accused each other of breaking a fragile cease-fire and escalating the situation along their tense border, as well as in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
Nearly 300 soldiers combined were killed in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in mid-September in the deadliest fighting since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed the lives of close to 7,000 people.
The border violence three months ago was followed by a flurry of diplomatic activity, with Yerevan and Baku engaging in talks hosted by the European Union, the United States, and Russia.
As part of an EU-brokered arrangement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a civilian monitoring mission of the European Union was deployed along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border from Armenia's side in October. It had been agreed that the mission of the EU Monitoring Capacity would last two months.
Russia currently deploys about 2,000 peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh after brokering a cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan following their 44-day war over the region in September-November 2020.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Some 30,000 people were killed in a war in the early 1990s that left ethnic Armenians in control of the breakaway region and seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.