Armenia continues to attempt to use the U.N. Security Council as a tool for its “political, military and informational manipulation campaign,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Armenia’s appeal to the Security Council on groundless allegations of ‘worsening humanitarian situation’ and ‘continued blockade’ in the region yet again comes at a time when Armenia itself deliberately and intentionally obstructs all the efforts made through international partners to find a balanced, law-based and reasonable solution on the ground,” the statement read.
It followed Armenia’s call on the UNSC on Saturday to hold an emergency meeting on what it described as a “worsening humanitarian situation” in Karabakh, a mountainous region belonging to Azerbaijan but occupied by Armenia for three decades.
Most of the territory was liberated by Baku during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and also opened the door to normalization.
The sides fought two wars to control Karabakh in the 1990s and again in 2020. Six weeks of fighting in autumn 2020 ended with a Russian-sponsored cease-fire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territories back to Azerbaijan it had illegally controlled for decades.
Tensions have been flying high ever since Azerbaijan in April this year set up the border checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, which Armenia alleged was a “blockade” of Karabakh.
Baku denied the claims, saying the checkpoint was installed in response to security threats from Armenia and citing the smuggling of weapons and ammunition to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region by Armenia.
Recalling that Armenia’s efforts came after Azerbaijan established the checkpoint, the ministry on Monday said Yerevan “has started propaganda campaign worldwide, imposing series of military and other obstructions for the normal functioning of the border checkpoint, as well as for the use of other routes, such as Aghdam-Khankendi road.”
It said an agreement was reached for the delivery of humanitarian cargo to Karabakh, and to hold a meeting between residents of the two sides in Yevlakh, but Yerevan “backtracked” at the last moment by “introducing politically motivated and illegitimate preconditions and various pretexts.”
Earlier this month, Armenia sent 19 trucks to the border on claims of a humanitarian crisis but the trucks waited at the border for about a week.
Baku said it will not allow shipments that were not previously discussed with them to their sovereign territories, suggesting the Aghdam-Khankendi road for shipments. When Armenia rejected the proposed path, an Azerbaijani official argued it presented “a significant risk to achieving a peaceful resolution of disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia and hampers the efforts of establishing lasting peace in the region.”
The state leaders and foreign ministers of the rival nations have since the start of the year met a handful of times as part of mediation efforts by the United States, European Union and Russia, who has been struggling to maintain their decisive influence because of the fallout from its war on Ukraine.
