Azerbaijan sets up checkpoint on vital road to Armenia

Azerbaijan has set up a checkpoint on the only road connecting Armenia to the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region for the first time since the 2020 war.

In a statement on Sunday, the state border service said that a border checkpoint was set up at the entrance of the road. It said the decision was in response to a similar move by Armenia.

The border service added that the checkpoint was to "prevent the illegal transportation of manpower, weapons, mines."

This is the first time Azerbaijan has taken such a step since the end of a 2020 war with Armenia over the contested region. As per the cease-fire which ended the war, Baku is required to guarantee safe passage on the Lachin Corridor.

The road has been patrolled by Russian peacekeepers since. But skirmishes between the two enemy states have persisted. Armenia has often said Russia is preoccupied by its invasion of Ukraine, distracting Moscow from its peacekeeping role in the region.

What happened with the checkpoint?

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused Armenia of using the corridor for army staff rotation, as well as "the transfer of weapons and ammunition, entrance of terrorists, as well as illicit trafficking of natural resources and cultural property."

It said on Sunday that it built the checkpoint in light of "threats and provocations." The ministry added that it had recorded military convoys entering the country's territory and setting up military infrastructure "at the point closest to the territory of Azerbaijan."

"Providing border security, as well as ensuring safe traffic on the road, is the prerogative of the government of Azerbaijan, and an essential prerequisite for national security, state sovereignty and the rule of law," the ministry said.

Armenia condemned the checkpoint as a "flagrant violation" of the 2020 cease-fire agreement.

"We call on the Russian Federation to ultimately implement the trilateral statement," the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

The US expressed deep concern regarding the Azerbaijani checkpoint. The US State Department said the move "undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process."

"We reiterate that there should be free and open movement of people and commerce on the Lachin corridor and call on the parties to resume peace talks and refrain from provocations and hostile actions along the border," the statement read.

Exchanging accusations of fire

Meanwhile, Armenia's Defense Ministry reported the death of one of its soldiers after Azerbaijani forces opened fire on an Armenian position in Sotk. The village lies some 60 kilometers (roughly 37 miles) west of the border with Azerbaijan.

Baku denied killing an Armenian soldier.

Azerbaijan later said Armenian troops fired on Azerbaijani units in the Lachin district, which Yerevan denied.

Long-contested since a separatist war ended in 1994, the Nagorno-Karabakh region has fueled fighting between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan. The region lies within Turkey-backed Azerbaijan but had largely been under the control of Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenian forces since 1994.

In 2020, a six-week war brought areas of the region under Azerbaijan's control and ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal.

rmt/wd (AFP, Reuters)