Armenia has proposed creating a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh with international guarantees as part of its latest peace plan on the breakaway region, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has announced.
Speaking at a weekly session of his cabinet on February 15, Pashinian said his country’s latest draft proposal had been forwarded to Azerbaijan and the OSCE Minsk Group, which is tasked with mediating talks between Baku and Yerevan.
Pashinian said he first voiced the idea of a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh on October 31 in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.
"The creation of a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh with international guarantees has been proposed, as a result of which Nagorno-Karabakh may not need a defense army of that scale. This proposal is still valid, I think,” Pashinian said.
His remarks come amid the latest standoff between the two South Caucasus rivals over a two-month blockade -- led by protesting Azerbaijanis claiming to be environmental activists -- of the Lachin Corridor, the only land route linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenians and others have accused Baku of staging the Lachin protest to put pressure on Yerevan and Karabakh Armenians, noting that spontaneous protests are routinely dispersed quickly by police in Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been sparring over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. The mainly ethnic Armenian enclave is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994 with some 30,000 dead.
During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of much of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,500 people died in the fighting, which was ended by a Russia-brokered peace agreement.
The blocking of the Lachin Corridor has led to sometimes tense standoffs between the protesting Azerbaijanis and Russian troops who are stationed there as part of the 2020 Russia-brokered deal.
Human Rights Watch said on December 21 that the blocking of the Lachin Corridor had disrupted access to essential goods and services for tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians living there.
"Prolonged blocking of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to the outside world could lead to dire humanitarian consequences," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
In August, the Lachin Corridor was the site of more tensions after Baku announced it had finished its section of a new road through the area, paving the way for Azerbaijani troops to take control of villages in the region, and prompting questions over the fate of ethnic Armenians there.
A month later, in September, Nagorno-Karabakh witnessed the most intense fighting since the 44-day war in 2020. Figures released by both sides showed that more than 200 service personnel were killed in the border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia.