The humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, cut off from Azerbaijan for days, is becoming increasingly dramatic. Salzburg-based Armenia expert Jasmin Dum-Tragut pointed this out to Kathpress on Tuesday. The international pressure on Azerbaijan to end the blockade is too small for the country to end the blockade, criticized Dum-Tragut.
No medicine, no food
Since December 12, Azerbaijan has closed the only road connecting Karabakh with Armenia (Lachin Corridor). Around 120,000 people are stranded in Karabakh, 1,100 Karabakh Armenians, including 270 minors, currently have no way to return home and are stuck on the closed road in the cold and without supplies. The Latschin corridor is also closed to emergency vehicles. Karabakh hospitals are no longer receiving the necessary medicines and supermarket shelves are already half empty.
The situation is deteriorating and the lack of medical care has already resulted in the death of a dialysis patient who could not be transported to Yerevan for dialysis. A child is seriously ill “and from today’s perspective, he will not survive the blockade”, says Dum-Tragut: “Yesterday afternoon, the road was cleared for a few seconds. An ambulance from Karabakh, accompanied by the Red Cross, drove past the demonstrators to avoid a 62-year-old Armenian who needed urgent heart surgery for Yerevan.”
After Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh also turned off the gas tap a few days ago, gas supply has resumed. However, there are significant food shortages. Negotiations with Azerbaijan have so far not led to any results. Azerbaijan is watching the reactions of the international community, including the growing demonstrations around the world, but also recognizes that concrete actions are lacking to end this blockade, according to Dum-Tragut. “The current weak international pressure is not enough.”
Dum-Tragut told Kathpress about a recent iconic episode. Azerbaijan’s self-proclaimed “environmentalists” wanted to symbolically fly 44 peace doves during a rally. In her emotional speech, however, the “leader” forgot “that she held the pigeon so tightly that she broke its neck and bent it motionless in her hand. When she then threw the pigeon into the air to let it fly, she first realized that she had killed the animal”. This dead peace dove has become a symbol of blockaded Karabakh.
The blocked Lachin corridor is Armenia’s only connection to Karabakh. A large part of Nagorno-Karabakh, populated by Armenians, was lost to Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020 in the war. By that time, the long-frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region had flared up again. Armed forces of Armenia and Karabakh had little to oppose the armed army of Azerbaijan. Much of Karabakh was taken by Azerbaijani forces before a ceasefire was negotiated on 9 November under Russian aegis. The ceasefire agreement stipulated that the corridor with the connecting road would not be handed over to Azerbaijan and that Russian troops would be stationed to protect the transport route between the Nagorno-Karabakh capital Stepanakert and Armenia.