Pope Francis said Sunday he was “concerned” about the blocking of a vital supply route to the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh amid fears of a worsening humanitarian situation as winter approaches.
“I am concerned about the situation in the Lachin Corridor in the South Caucasus,” the Pope said during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been vying for control of Nagorno-Karabakh for more than thirty years and clashed in the fall of 2020 in a war that ended in Armenia’s military defeat and the deployment of peacekeeping forces.
Dozens of Azerbaijani protesters have been blocking the Lakhin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, since December 12, claiming to protest illegal mineral mining and the environmental damage it causes.
Armenia, in turn, accuses its rival of having organized these demonstrations under false pretenses.
The High Priest said he was particularly “concerned about the population’s vulnerable humanitarian situation, which could worsen over the winter”.
“I urge all parties to work towards peaceful solutions for the benefit of the people,” he added.
US diplomatic spokesman Ned Price warned that the closure of the Lachin corridor would have “serious humanitarian consequences” and set back “the fragile peace process” between the two countries.
These two Caucasian nations clashed in the early 1990s when the USSR disintegrated to control Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan.
This first conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives, ended in an Armenian victory. But Azerbaijan retaliated in a second war that claimed 6,500 lives in the fall of 2020 and recaptured many territories.
In September, fighting on the direct border between the two countries, rather than in Nagorno-Karabakh, claimed nearly 300 lives and raised fears of a new major war.