US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Azerbaijan is risking causing a potential humanitarian crisis with Baku’s continued blockade of a key road linking Armenia to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In a phone call on Monday, he urged Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor and immediately reopen the road to commercial traffic underscoring that Baku not only it risks humanitarian crisis in the area but is also undermining the peace prospects between longtime enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Blinken, according to the State Department’s readout of the call, also raised human rights concerns in Azerbaijan, encouraging Azerbaijan’s president to double down on efforts for peace discussions with Yerevan.
He pointed out to the data compiled by Human Rights Watch – which had documented torture and other mistreatment by Azerbaijan against Armenian civilians – showing that Azerbaijani forces have also subjected numerous Armenian POWs to physical abuse and acts of humiliation and have desecrated dead bodies of Armenia soldiers, as videos that have also surfaced showed.
Aliev claimed that environmental activists, and not Baku, are the ones blocking the road for over a month now protesting against the alleged illegal Armenian mining in the area, although Baku has reiterated on several occasions its support for the protests, saying activists’ requests are legitimate.
Concerned about the potentially escalating situation, US lawmakers from both sides of the political spectrum have urged the Biden administration last week to use any means available to increase pressure and even impose sanctions on Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials to force them to end the blockade of over 120,000 people in Nagorno-Karabakh.
They said that Washington must consider all available options – including potential airlifts of supplies – to provide humanitarian aid to the region, reiterating that the threat of sanctions against Azerbaijan is warranted and appropriate.
USAID Director Samantha Power also demanded previously last month immediate opening of the Lachin corridor, stressing that it is an essential route for the much-needed food and medical supplies to flow to the region.
