BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan said on Tuesday protests which have blocked the supply route to ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh for more than two weeks would be suspended if monitors were given access to what it calls illegal mining sites in the enclave.
A crowd of Azerbaijanis has been engaged in a standoff with Russian peacekeepers since Dec. 12 along the Lachin corridor, the road that crosses Azerbaijani territory and connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The blocking of the road, on which the territory depends for supplies of food, fuel and medicine, has prompted the United States and the European Union to express humanitarian concerns and urge Baku to reopen it.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two wars in the last 30 years over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but whose 120,000 residents are mostly ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told a news conference that Baku had for more than a year been demanding access to monitor mining sites in Karabakh that it says are being illegally exploited.
Asked on what condition the protests could be suspended, he said: “The demand of the Azerbaijani side and the environmental activists is that the state organs of Azerbaijan must have the possibility to visit, conduct monitoring and observe the situation at these mining sites.”
Ethnic Armenian leaders in Karabakh have accused Azerbaijan of orchestrating a fake protest in order to blockade the territory. Baku denies that, saying the activists are genuine and their protest is justified.
Efforts by Russia, the United States and the EU to bring about a lasting peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan have made only slow progress since the last war in 2020.
Azerbaijan staged large-scale cross-border attacks inside Armenia in September that Yerevan described as unprovoked aggression. Azerbaijan said its soldiers responded after Armenian sabotage units tried to mine its positions. More than 200 Armenian troops and around 80 Azerbaijanis were killed.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Peter Graff)
