The enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (or Artsakh to Armenians) has now been under a blockade for more than a month. Beginning on December 12, 2022 Azeribijiani government-backed protesters have blocked the only road connection between Armenia proper and Artsakh. Because of this, all movement on the road has stopped and over 120,000 ethnic Armenians have been cut off from Armenia and the rest of the world.
As of now, the protesters demand that Azeri environmental officials be allowed to visit the mines in Nagorno-Karabakh which, according to them, have been illegally mining Azerbaijan’s mineral wealth, but few are taking this justification seriously. Many people, especially Armenians, believe that the true reason for this blockade is to pressure Armenia into giving up more of the region.
This new crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-governing breakaway state of Azerbaijan populated by ethnic Armenians, comes amid a thawing of the formerly frozen conflict. In the latter half of 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war over the region which saw Azerbaijan (through Russian mediation) take the majority of Karabakh, leaving the local Armenians with a small area of control. After the war, Azerbaijan, led by Ilham Alyiev, made several incursions into southern Armenia and demanded that Armenia cede parts of its land. Because of these actions, observers of the conflict say that President Alieyiv is looking for a deal that would give him the rest of Artsakh. This deal would also mean he gets control over a road in southern Armenia that would connect Azerbaijan proper with its western exclave of Nachivian.
The timing to pull off such a hawkish move could not be better for President Alieyv. As of now, Russia, the region’s main military power and Armenia’s historic security guarantor, has been busy with the fiasco in Ukraine. Russia does not have the manpower or resources to intervene on Armenia’s behalf. In addition to this, the European Union, which is trying to mediate the conflict, has recently befriended Azerbaijan as part of its complex plan to wean itself off Russian oil and gas.
Meanwhile, the situation in the remaining parts of Artsakh is only getting more dire. It has been reported that food, gas, and medical supplies have been running dangerously low. Rationing measures have been put in place and there are now long lines outside grocery stores. Blackouts of both electricity and internet have now become a part of daily life, meaning that Armenians are cut off from the wider world. School has been halted for an indefinite amount of time and hospitals have almost ceased to work. Several people have already died due to the cold weather and lack of medical supplies.
Many Armenians are calling these actions taken by Azerbaijan as an attempted genocide. They see this blockade as part of Azerbaijan’s continued attempt to ethnically cleanse the region of its indigenous Armenians and have been trying to get the public eye onto this story. This has been done most successfully by Russian-Armenian tennis star, Karen Khachanov, when he wrote “Artsakh stay strong” on a camera lens after winning a semifinal match in the Australian open.
These efforts have not been in vain. International pressure is slowly growing on Aliyev to stop the blockade, but it seems like Azerbaijan is not going to back down just yet. The Armenian government has tried to get a global actor, such as the US or the UN, to intervene, but with little success. It is safe to say that without the international community taking drastic measures against Azerbaijan, Artsakh will be plunged into a full on humanitarian crisis.
References:
- https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijanis-again-block-the-road-to-karabakh
- https://news.yahoo.com/explainer-tensions-high-over-isolated-073938948.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
- https://news.yahoo.com/full-blown-crisis-karabakh-blockade-142206628.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
- https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/21/azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh-lifeline-road-blocked
- https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/03/russian-peacekeepers-find-themselves-sidelined-in-nagorno-karabakh-a79868
- https://www.civilnet.am/en/news/685619/special-report-azerbaijan-blocks-armenia-karabakh-highway-for-second-time/
