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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his cabinet on Thursday that he has received information suggesting that Azerbaijan is planning to re-open the Lachin Corridor only for one-way outbound movement to persons leaving Artsakh.

Without elaborating on the information, Pashinyan said that Azerbaijan is continuing its illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor. He pointed out that a humanitarian convoy of trucks carrying 400 tons of assistance from the Armenian government, and other trucks from private sector and regions in France, remain stranded at the entrance of the Lachin Corridor.

“At the same time, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains tense. The only change in the situation is that a certain movement of people requiring treatment and other citizens has begun along the Lachin Corridor through the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, we have received credible information that plans are being developed to open one-way transit along the Lachin Corridor, meaning to allow only exit from Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister reiterated that Baku continues its breach of provisions of the November 9, 2020 agreement.

Pashinyan also accused Azerbaijan of “torpedoing” any dialogue with Stepanakert.

“Our information suggests that Baku, through various methods, is continuously torpedoing dialogue with Stepanakert, and is trying to put the responsibility for this on Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Pashinyan who reiterated his government’s policy that issues relating to the rights and security of Artsakh should be addresses through direct talks between Stepanakert and Baku, with international mechanisms.

He explained that clause 7 of the November 9, 2020 statement stipulates the return of refugees and displaced persons not only to Nagorno-Karabakh but also adjacent regions.

“This means that Armenians of not only a number of villages of Martakert, Hadrut and Martuni, but also Getashen, Martunashen, Shahumyan and other regions must have the opportunity to safely return to their homes, with dignity,” Pashinyan said.

He also told his cabinet that Yerevan has officially submitted new proposals for the much-discussed peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“I’d like to underscore the commitment of the Republic of Armenia to the peace agenda. I have to inform you that we’ve conveyed to the Azerbaijani side our new proposals on a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan said.

A sniper of Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade takes a position during a reconnaissance mission near the eastern city of Bakhmut.

The final declaration of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies in India left Kyiv angry over its refusal to condemn Moscow for its aggression against Ukraine, as new fragments of projectiles appeared to have landed on NATO-member Romania’s territory on September 9.

“We are grateful to the partners who tried to include strong wording in the text,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko posted on Facebook.

“However, in terms of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, [the] G20 has nothing to be proud of,” he wrote.

RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

The final declaration revealed the sharp divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with host India able to get attendees to agree to a final statement only after softening language on Moscow’s war on its neighbor.

The statement underlined the “human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine,” but did not mention Russia’s invasion.

“All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible,” it said, referencing the UN Charter.

A senior EU diplomat told AP that the bloc had not given up any of its position and said the fact that Moscow had signed on to the agreement was important.

“The option we have is text or no text, and I think it is better [to have a] text. At least if they [the Russians] don’t implement, we know once more that we cannot rely on them,” the diplomat said.

Meanwhile, Kyiv said the toll of the wounded from a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryviy Rih rose to 74, as Ukrainian forces pressed their slow counteroffensive against Russian forces in southern and eastern regions.

Elsewhere, Romanian officials said they had found new drone fragments on the NATO member’s territory near the Ukrainian border for the second time this week. The Defense Ministry said they were “similar to those used by the Russian Army.”

President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement that the fragments indicated “an absolutely unacceptable violation of the sovereign airspace of Romania, a NATO ally, with real risks to the security of Romanian citizens in the area.”

Iohannis added that he had a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to inform him of the new finding and that he had received assurances of the alliance’s support.

Moscow did not comment on the report.

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Eighteen months into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine is struggling to build momentum in the counteroffensive taking place over three fronts, with the primary push coming south of Orikhiv, in the southern Zaporizhzhya region.

While some Western allies have expressed frustration with the slow pace of the effort, now in its third month, Ukrainian troops have shown glimpses of success in breaching the Russian defensive lines.

Kyiv also claimed “partial success” in the east, near the obliterated Donetsk region city of Bakhmut, which Russia captured earlier this year.

And in Crimea, Russian-installed authorities in the city of Simferopol called a blaze at a military post a “domestic fire” and not the result of an attack by Ukrainian drones.

Full details of the blaze were not immediately available. Kyiv has not commented.

A main goal of Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive is to drive toward the peninsula and eventually retake the region, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Kyiv estimates that Russia has deployed more than 420,000 soldiers in areas it controls in the east and south of Ukraine, deputy intelligence chief Vadym Skibitskiy said on September 9.

“The Russian Federation has concentrated more than 420,000 servicemen in our territories that are temporarily occupied, including Crimea,” Skibitskiy said at a conference in Kyiv. The figure “does not include the Russian National Guard and other special units that maintain occupation authorities on our territories.”

Ukraine is almost entirely dependent on Western military aid and equipment to wage its defense against the Russian invasion. Kyiv has repeatedly pressed the United States and other allies for more powerful weaponry, such as F-16 fighter jets, which could be put into service next year.

Kyiv has also sought supplies of long-range, U.S.-designed Army Tactical Missile Systems, which have a greater distance for striking at Russian targets.

The United States has been reluctant to send the weapons, but unnamed U.S. officials told ABC News that the systems, known as ATACMS, or “attack-ems,” were likely to be supplied in the end.

“They are coming,” one anonymous official told ABC News on September 8. A second official said the missiles were “on the table” and likely to be included in an upcoming weapons package.

Japan’s foreign minister arrived in Kyiv on September 9 in an unannounced visit aimed at showing support for Ukraine.

Yoshimasa Hayashi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and agreed to begin talks on potential security guarantees and to cooperate on reconstructing Ukraine’s economy, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Japan has joined the West in supporting Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia. However, it does not allow the supply of weapons, under long-standing pacifist government policies.

It’s the first visit by a Japanese foreign minister to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a joint news conference thanked Hayashi for his country’s support and that he wanted the foreign minister “and the entire Japanese people to know that the Ukrainian people remember and will never forget the humanitarian aid.”

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Azerbaijan’s government and separatist Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh appeared to strike a deal reopening two disputed transport links including a key route known as the Lachin corridor.

The moves – initially reported by Armenia’s Armenpress state news agency and confirmed by Azerbaijan – appear at least partly to grant the latter’s decades-old demand to restore transport links between Azeri government-held territory and Nagorno-Karabakh, where Armenians seized control in the 1990s.

Karabakh is recognised globally as part of Azerbaijan, but has been controlled by its population of about 120,000 ethnic Armenians since a war that coincided with the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 90s.

Azerbaijan recaptured large swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh in a 2020 war, and for the past nine months has exerted pressure by restricting access to Armenia through the Lachin corridor.

Armenpress cited Karabakh authorities as saying that they had “decided to allow access of the Russian goods to our republic through the town of Askeran”, referring to a Karabakh town close to the frontline with Azerbaijan.

“At the same time, an agreement has been reached to restore humanitarian shipments by the Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross along the Lachin corridor,” the Armenpress report said, referring to the area through which the road linking Karabakh to Armenia passes. It said the move was driven by “severe humanitarian problems” in the blockaded region.

Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, told Reuters on Saturday that a deal had been struck to open roads between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He stressed that the roads would be opened simultaneously and added that an Azerbaijani checkpoint on Lachin corridor to Armenia would remain.

Azerbaijan had previously accused Armenia of using the corridor to smuggle weapons, and of rejecting an offer to reopen the roads simultaneously.

The apparent deal came on a day Karabakh’s parliament chose a new president of its self-proclaimed independent republic, a move Azerbaijan has denounced as illegal, amid days of escalating tensions between Baku and Yerevan.

Azerbaijan has a close relationship with Turkey, while Armenia has historically held close ties with Russia, which sent peacekeepers to the area and promised to keep the Lachin corridor open as part of a peace deal that ended the 2020 war. Armenia has lately complained that Moscow failed to live up to its assurances, leading him to seek wider international support.

Azerbaijan said on Saturday that Armenian forces had fired on its troops overnight, and that Azerbaijan army units took “retaliatory measures”. Armenia denied the incident.

The Armenian government said its prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, held phone conversations on Saturday with the leaders of France, Germany, Iran and Georgia, and with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. Azerbaijan said its foreign minister discussed the situation with a senior US state department official, Yuri Kim.

According to Armenia’s government, Pashinyan told the foreign leaders that tensions were rising on the border, and that Azerbaijan was concentrating troops there and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has denied this, while accusing Armenia of similar steps.

On Saturday, Karabakh’s separatist parliament elected Samvel Shahramanyan, a military officer and former head of the territory’s security service, as its new president, replacing an incumbent who resigned a week ago.

In a speech to parliament, Shahramanyan called for direct negotiations with Azerbaijan, and for transport links to Armenia to be restored.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry called the ethnic Armenian leadership of Karabakh a “puppet separatist regime” and said the vote was illegal. “The only way to achieve peace and stability in the region is the unconditional and complete withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the disbandment of the puppet regime.”

Both Ukraine and Turkey condemned the election, and expressed support for Azerbaijan’s claim to Karabakh. The EU said it did not recognise the election, but that Karabakh residents should “consolidate around the de facto leadership” in talks with Armenia.

In the capitals of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, residents told Reuters they feared a new war between the two countries.

“We will probably have martyrs again,” said Mansura Lahicova, a woman in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. “I have two sons who have reached military age. I hope it will be a victory and that everything calms down.”

In Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, a resident who gave his name as Hayk accused Azerbaijan of wanting to start another war.

“I hope this does not happen, but if it does, all of us, all friends and brothers, are ready to go to war. Last time we buried our friends, now it’s our turn.”

With Reuters

The constitutional rules for appointing a new president during a transitional phase in the event of a vacancy in the incumbent president’s office due to martial law are aimed to prevent immediate presidential and extraordinary parliamentary elections when a democratically elected president prematurely leaves office with unfinished pre-election plans, the newly elected President of Artsakh Samvel Shahramanyan stated in his speech.

“Dear Speaker of the National Assembly and members of Parliament!

The Basic Law of the Republic of Artsakh proclaimed Artsakh a sovereign, democratic, legal, and social state and established that power in the Republic of Artsakh belongs to the people, who exercise it through free elections, referendums, as well as in other ways provided for by the Constitution and laws.

The norms enshrined in the Constitution provide for certain counterbalance mechanisms designed to ensure the coordinated and uninterrupted operation of all branches of government. The institution of the president has its place in this system, whose task is to take responsibility in overcoming existing challenges. To realize the latter, it is extremely important to soberly assess reality and dispel illusions.

Dear members of parliament, I am not going to set out the election program in its classical sense. It is evident that the purpose of constitutional norms regarding the election of a new president during a transitional period in the event of a vacancy in the office of the incumbent president under conditions of martial law was to ensure that if the president, elected through direct democracy, prematurely departs from office for any reason and their pre-election plans remain unfinished, the country does not immediately proceed to presidential and extraordinary parliamentary elections.

The latest phase of the Artsakh conflict, which began on September 27, 2020, and was frozen by a trilateral agreement on November 9, not only made it impossible to implement the election program of the current president, but also gave rise to a number of new pressing problems.

Therefore, in the current situation, a candidate applying for the position of president should focus more on overcoming the crisis situation, solving ontological, security and humanitarian problems facing the state. The main provisions of the latter and the envisioned outcomes of the proposed actions have already been discussed during meetings held with the factions.
I would like to thank all the deputies who took part in the discussions for the questions raised, opinions and proposals expressed, as well as concerns voiced.

At the same time, I thank all the political forces that nominated my candidacy for the National Assembly.Dear MPs, the essence of the vision presented to you can be summarized in the following brief formulation: strengthening the state and maintaining internal stability, protecting Artsakh’s right to self-determination, ensuring its free life and security, promoting the economic development of the country, gradually improving the social situation of the people and strengthening the rule of law.

What challenges is Artsakh facing now?

Dear deputies, I am not revealing a secret when I say that the partial and then complete blockade of the Republic of Artsakh by Azerbaijan since December 12, 2022 has created a number of problems for the republic.

There is no doubt that the geopolitical conflict between Russia and the West and the Russian-Ukrainian war are influencing the current situation. This conflict is reflected in our region, considering the settlement of the Artsakh issue as part of the steps taken against each other within the framework of this conflict.

By reevaluating its security concept in light of post-war realities, the Republic of Armenia has effectively shifted away from its long-term role as the guarantor of Artsakh’s security and adopted an approach known as the “peace agenda.” The core of this agenda is the recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, including Artsakh, with the condition of safeguarding the fundamental rights and the rights of Artsakh Armenians.

In turn, Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the fact that international players have not taken objective steps, is gradually violating the provisions of the Tripartite Statement of November 9, 2020 and increasing pressure on Artsakh in order to implement its own “integration” program. At the same time, Azerbaijan continues to trumpet on all international platforms that the Artsakh conflict has already been resolved, that there is no such thing as Nagorno-Karabakh, and the issue of ensuring the rights and freedoms of local Armenians is an internal issue of its country.

On the contrary, prominent players in global politics are satisfied only by the daily increasing volume of concerns, exhortations and appeals. The implementation of decisions of international and European courts of human rights also remains incomplete. It is obvious that not a single international player is currently interested in applying harsh measures to influence Azerbaijan. Moreover, there is a belief that it is realistic to engage Stepanakert in discussions regarding the integration agenda.

In other words, we can state that the rights and legitimate interests of the Armenians of Artsakh are not protected within the framework of international law. Accordingly, I consider our ideas and expectations regarding international law to be unrealistic and divorced from reality, since it is obvious that international politics, geopolitics, even wars do not occur within the framework of international law.

The above leaves Artsakh no other choice but to try to find intermediate solutions based on the situation,” said the President of Artsakh Republic.

Even though Russia and the collective West hold opposing views on the conflict, it’s important to acknowledge that there is global consensus on certain aspects of the Artsakh conflict, including the following:

1) The Artsakh conflict has not been resolved, as Azerbaijan claims, therefore Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed territory that should receive a specific status.

2) Artsakh and Armenia must have direct transport links – the [Berdzor] Lachin Corridor. Contrary to Baku’s claims, the latter has been closed for a long time and should be opened. Other regional roads should also be launched, but they cannot replace the Lachin Corridor or be considered as an alternative to it.
3) Stepanakert should negotiate with Baku. Moreover, in this matter, both the Russian Federation and the collective West are ready to provide a platform and act as a mediator, which Azerbaijan is categorically opposed to.

The above-mentioned points are the basis for building Artsakh’s foreign policy within this framework. Therefore, the priority of the future president should be to transform Stepanakert from an object for resolving the Artsakh conflict into a subject of negotiations. At the same time, depending on the scale of the issues currently being discussed, the format of negotiations can be either multilateral or bilateral. The only mandatory condition should be the organization of negotiations by a third country with its guarantee of implementation of the agreements reached.

By Giorgi Lomsadze

As Azerbaijan keeps a chokehold on supplies to Nagorny Karabakh in a months-long blockade driving food and fuel shortages in the Armenian-populated territory, Russia’s reluctance in intervening to unlock the situation has soured relations between Yerevan and Moscow.

Russia has long been Armenia’s security guarantor, but in an interview released on September 3, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that depending solely on Moscow was “a strategic mistake” because it has been unable to deliver. Russian media labelled Pashinyan’s statement as “unacceptable in tone”. 

On September 5, Armenia recalled Viktor Biyakov, its ambassador to the Collective Security Organisation Treaty (CSTO), the Russia-led security alliance of post-Soviet countries. He was then appointed ambassador to the Netherlands and experts noted that he was unlikely to be replaced.

In addition, on September 6, Yerevan announced joint military exercises with the US on its territory from September 11 to 20, as part of preparation for participation in international peacekeeping missions. 

Stretched in Ukraine, the Kremlin has avoided getting entangled in the blockade of the Lachin corridor. Russian peacekeepers, tasked with enforcing the 2020 ceasefire between Yerevan and Baku, did little to prevent Azerbaijan from setting up checkpoints along Lachin and shutting down traffic of goods. The Azerbaijani side claims Armenia was first to violate the terms of truce and that Baku had to take measures in response.  

Baku’s victory in 2020 in the latest war over the Armenian-populated enclave, which is inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognised territory, left the region with Lachin as the only link to the outside world: since December 2022, Baku has gradually restricted movement through the road, until it effectively sealed it off mid-June. Trucks with aid and supplies were left stranded on the Armenian side. 

Dismissing these reports as exaggerations, Baku claimed that Armenia was using the route to send ammunition into Karabakh and to otherwise sabotage Azerbaijan’s push to enforce its jurisdiction over the enclave. But closing this key passage has led to mounting tensions and reduced the room for dialogue between the sides to the conflict. 

“It seems that Baku’s blockade is driven by vindictiveness,” Hans Gutbrod, associate professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, told IWPR. “It’s hard to see this as a calculated policy since the more constructive and conciliatory approach would be much more likely to result in a last solution.” 

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two major wars over Karabakh, an Armenian-dominated autonomous region of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. These conflicts, one from 1988–1994 and another in late 2020,  claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. 

In between these wars there were almost 30 years of chronic exchanges of fire and state-sponsored mutual threats amid futile international efforts to broker peace.  

Home to around 120,000 ethnic Armenians, the region has been de facto independent since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Armenian troops occupied swathes of surrounding Azerbaijani lands, forming a buffer zone around the region. 

In 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed all of the occupied territories and part of Karabakh itself, and effectively encircled it from all sides. Under a Moscow-brokered armistice, Russian peacekeepers were to guarantee free and safe passage between Karabakh and Armenia through the five kilometre-wide Lachin mountain pass. 

In late 2022, however, Baku effectively severed this lifeline. Supplies soon began to dwindleand shops’ shelves began to empty in the region’s main city Stepanakert, Khenkendi in Azerbaijani Aid organisations called for lifting the blockade, warning of a looming humanitarian crisis. Authorities in Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh, claim that Azerbaijan’s goal is to starve Armenians out of the region. On August 15, authorities reported the region’s first death from starvation. 

Armenia has called for an emergency meeting of a UN Security Council to discuss the plight of its protectorate. 

“The people of Karabakh are on the verge of a full-fledged humanitarian catastrophe,” Armenia’s representative to the UN, Mher Margaryan, wrote on August 11. 

Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of manipulating international opinion with tales of a humanitarian crisis so as to stall the process of Karabakh’s reintegration into Azerbaijan. Yashar Aliyev, Margaryan’s Azerbaijani counterpart, said that if the situation was that bad Armenia and Karabakh would have agreed to opening up an alternative, Azerbaijan-controlled supply route.

Azerbaijan has been offering to provide essential goods to Karabakh through the Aghdam road, which would link link Karabakh to mainland Azerbaijan. 

While the EU backed Baku’s proposal, Karabakh residents refused it as marking the effective legitimation of Azerbaijan’s rule over the region. 

“Aghdam road is a road to ethnic cleansing,” said placards held by protesters from Karabakh on July 18, as they barricaded the entry from Aghdam.

Azerbaijani border guards’ treatment of Karabakh citizens at the Lachin checkpoint, most notably the arrest of a 65-year-old Karabakh resident on allegations of committing war crimes 30 years ago, has also hampered building trust between the sides.   

Humanitarian organisations, international observers and diplomats, including EU High Commissioner Josep Borrell, said that the Aghdam road cannot serve as a substitute to Lachin road, and not just because of the mistrust between the warring sides. 

“Aghdam road is not an alternative,” Olesya Vartanyan, a South Caucasus analyst with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-headquartered think-tank, told IWPR. “After you had been using one road for 30 years, get all of your supplies through that road and have an infrastructure set up, you can’t just switch away from it overnight.”     

Convened at the behest of Armenia, UN Security Council members called on August 17 for the reopening of the Lachin corridor. The Russian representative suggested using both Lachin and Aghdam for supplies. 

Baku has insisted all along that the Lachin corridor is open, at least to the movement of civilians. In August Azerbaijani television aired reports showing Armenians going through the checkpoint and Baku stated that this disproved the Armenian claims of a blockade. 

Reached by IWPR, Karabakh’s de-facto authorities confirmed that there “no free exit or entry to Artsakh”.  

“No goods, supplies and even medication are allowed through,” the de-facto foreign ministry said in a written response to IWPR’s query. “Sometimes Azerbaijan allows the transportation of seriously ill patients to Armenia. Two days ago [in late August] it was possible to arrange the departure of a group of students, who study in higher education institutions of Armenia or other countries. But in general the situation hasn’t changed.” 

International pressure has been mounting on Azerbaijan, but Baku remains defiant, at least in its public statements. 

“Internationally, the situation is so liquid that it’s no guarantee that international attention alone with be enough to lift the blockade, in whole or part,” said Gutbrod. “The West does have some leverage, but it is also facing multiple crises at the same time.”

This publication was published by IWPR and prepared under the “Amplify, Verify, Engage (AVE) Project” implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.