Officials in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh said a Russian truck carrying humanitarian aid arrived on September 12 in the region via territory controlled by Azerbaijan, the first time such a crossing has been allowed in more than three decades.
The Russian Red Cross's humanitarian aid reached the territory's capital, Stepanakert, carrying blankets, toiletries and 1,000 food parcels, the ethnic Armenian authorities that control the region said in a statement.
Access via a link with Armenia, known as the Lachin Corridor, has been effectively blocked by Baku for more than nine months, prompting Yerevan to accuse Azerbaijan of creating a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The shipment arrived three days after Armenian-backed separatist leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan announced a deal that would allow aid deliveries to the breakaway region amid warnings from international aid groups of dire shortages of food and medicine in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh authorities agreed to allow Russian-provided aid to be delivered directly from Baku-controlled territory via the Agdam road, while in return Azerbaijani authorities agreed to allow aid deliveries to the breakaway region through the Lachin Corridor from Armenian territory.
SEE ALSO: Armenian Woman's Body In Limbo As Family Seeks Burial In Nagorno-KarabakhThe shipment that arrived on September 12 was transported through Azerbaijani territory, reopening a transport link that had been closed since Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Baku in a war that ended three decades ago.
Baku has pressed for its Agdam route to be used for aid deliveries instead of the blocked Lachin Corridor from Armenian territory. Nagorno-Karabakh officials, however, have claimed it is an effort by Baku to control aid shipments and reestablish authority over the region while taking it away from ethnic-Armenian leaders.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but is populated by around 120,000 ethnic Armenians. It broke from Baku's hold in a war as the Soviet Union collapsed, and for decades survived with direct support from Armenia thanks to control of a land link, the Lachin Corridor.
A second war in 2020 saw Azerbaijan reconquer territory in and around the mountainous region and Armenia lost control of the corridor, leaving the road policed by Russian peacekeepers until it was blocked last December.
Armenian state media quoted the mayor of the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, Stepanakert, as saying that some residents had initially protested before letting the truck proceed, a reflection of concerns about ceding control to Azerbaijan, Reuters reported.
SEE ALSO: Border Monitors Signal EU's Deepening Role As Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace BrokerIt was not immediately clear whether Azerbaijan had also allowed aid to enter from Armenia through the Lachin Corridor as promised in the agreement struck on September 9. French and Armenian aid shipments have been waiting at the corridor's entrance for several weeks.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry called the September 12 aid shipment “a positive step,” and that it had agreed that the two roads could be used “simultaneously.” It also said that the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist authorities were “preventing the implementation of this agreement.”
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the shipment of aid from Moscow represented “a first step” to solving the crisis with expectations that the Lachin Corridor would be unblocked “in the near future.”
Yerevan has accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to keep the Lachin Corridor open and to protect the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Western leaders have expressed concern about the blocking of the Lachin route over recent months.
Azerbaijani protesters identifying themselves as environmentalists have blocked a section of the road since December 12 and are demanding Baku be allowed to inspect “illegal” ore mines in Karabakh.
Azerbaijani officials have insisted they are not encouraging the protesters -- though they have not moved to force them out.