The blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh was an event in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The region was disputed between Azerbaijan and the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, which had an ethnic Armenian population and was supported by neighbouring Armenia, until the dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh on 28 September 2023.
On 12 December 2022, under the guise of environmental protests, the Azerbaijani government launched a blockade of the Republic of Artsakh by sending citizens claiming to be eco-activists to block the Lachin corridor, a humanitarian corridor which connected Artsakh to Armenia and the outside world. Disguised military personnel, civil servants, members of pro-government NGOs, and youth organisations were among the so-called activists. The Azerbaijani government consolidated its blockade by seizing territory around the Lachin corridor both within Artsakh and Armenia, blocking alternative bypass routes, and installing military checkpoints. Azerbaijan also sabotaged critical civilian infrastructure of Artsakh, crippling access to gas, electricity, and internet access.
The blockade led to a humanitarian crisis for the population in Artsakh; imports of essential goods, humanitarian convoys of the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeepers were blocked, trapping the 120,000 residents of the region. Shortages of essential goods – including electricity, fuel, and water reserves – were widespread and emergency reserves were rationed, along with mass unemployment, and closures of schools and public transportation. Azerbaijan claimed its actions were aimed at preventing the transportation of weapons and natural resources; it also said its goal was for Artsakh's "integration" into Azerbaijan, despite opposition from the population, and threatened military action.
Numerous countries, international organizations, and human rights observers condemned the blockade and considered it to be a form of hybrid warfare and ethnic cleansing, with possible risks of genocide. Multiple international observers also considered the blockade and the inaction of the Russian peacekeepers to be violations of the tripartite ceasefire agreement signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, which ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and guaranteed safe passage through the Lachin corridor. Azerbaijan ignored calls from various countries and international organizations to restore freedom of movement through the corridor. The blockade ended on 30 September 2023, following an Azerbaijani military offensive and the subsequent expulsion of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Background
The Republic of Artsakh, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, was a de facto state located on territory that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. The vast majority of Artsakh's inhabitants are ethnic Armenians; the mainland of Armenia is located to the west of Azerbaijan. The Republic of Artsakh was not recognized by any country, including Armenia; however, for the past 30 years, international mediators had emphasized the right of self-determination for the local Armenian population.
Despite being offered Azerbaijani citizenship, Artsakh residents did not trust Azerbaijan's guarantees of security due to the country's history of human rights abuses, Armenophobia, and lack of rights to ethnic minorities. Since the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, Azerbaijan no longer promised any special status or autonomy to its ethnic Armenian residents. The Republic of Artsakh also became increasingly dependent on Armenia since territories with vital agricultural, water, and energy resources were surrendered to Azerbaijan as per the ceasefire agreement. Before the blockade, Artsakh imported 90% of its food from Armenia. As per the 2020 ceasefire agreement, Armenian forces were removed from the region and Russian peacekeeping forces were given a mandate in the region until 2025. Up until the 2022 blockade, the Russian peacekeepers controlled entry and exit through the Lachin corridor and shared lists of people entering with Azerbaijan.
First blockade (1989–2023) and isolation from Armenia (1989–1992)
Artsakh and neighbouring Armenia were blockaded for the first time in August 1989, with Azerbaijan severing transport and economic links both between Armenia and Azerbaijan and between Artsakh and Armenia. This blockade was later joined by Turkey in support of Azerbaijan and has continued into the present day. The national assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to reunite with Armenia, resulting in Azerbaijan attempting to revoke its autonomy and sieging its capital for 6 months. The complete isolation of Artsakh from the outside world lasted for 3 years until Armenian forces opened a humanitarian corridor known as the Lachin corridor to Armenia in May 1992.
In its attempt to isolate the region, the Azerbaijani government blacklists individuals from humanitarian organizations and journalists who work in Artsakh. As a result of this, the only international organizations who work within Artsakh are HALO and the ICRC. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders, and the International Federation of Journalists, have called on Azerbaijan to allow entry of independent organizations, including United Nations agencies. The political isolation and existential threats that Artsakh residents experience from Azerbaijan have cultivated a siege mentality in public life.
Threats to public utility infrastructure and entry
Because the Lachin corridor remains the only transportation route in and out of Artsakh, it is considered a humanitarian corridor and essential "lifeline" to Artsakh residents. The Lachin corridor is also used to supply the region with all of its electricity, Internet, telephone infrastructure, and natural gas. In 2017, a second and faster highway was built between Artsakh and Armenia (the Vardenis–Martakert highway), but this alternative route has been closed since Azerbaijan took control of the Dadivank-Sotk section (in Kalbajar) during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020). There has not been regular air transit into and out of Artsakh since the Stepanakert Airport was closed in 1990 during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The Artsakh government has attempted to re-open the commercial airport multiple times since it was reconstructed in 2011 but has been blocked by Azerbaijan, who warns that airplanes flying over Nagorno-Karabakh will be destroyed.
In the first month after the end of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, residents complained about unstable cellular communications and problems with the Internet. The problem was somewhat rectified with the replacement of damaged sections of fiber-optic cable in the Lachin corridor through the mediation of Russian peacekeeping forces. However, beginning in August 2021, the problem arose again, with the problem being more acute during the daytime and for communities located close to the Line of Contact. Artsakh officials and experts stated that Azerbaijan had also installed mobile jamming devices which interfere with communications.
The gas connection to Artsakh has been severed three times by Azerbaijan in 2022, with the longest shutoff period lasting 3 weeks. Officials from the Parliamentary Council of Europe, Armenia, and Artsakh have said that Azerbaijan can disrupt the gas supply to Artsakh on demand by means of a control valve that Azerbaijan installed in March 2020 during repair works. A PACE report said that the observation that gas does not go beyond the village of Pekh indicates that a control valve was installed.
After Azerbaijan closed the Vardenis–Martakert highway in 2020, Artsakh residents expressed fear that Azerbaijan would eventually close the Lachin corridor and in 2021 unsuccessfully petitioned the Russian peacekeeping forces to reopen an alternative route. With the Vardenis–Martakert highway closed, Stepanakert is now a six-hour drive from the nearest accessible international airport in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has built two new airports in Zangilan and Fuzuli, located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, since Artsakh forces surrendered them in 2020.
In September 2021, following increased tension with Iran, Azerbaijan accused Iranian drivers of delivering supplies to Artsakh and later arrested two drivers for "illegally" entering Azerbaijan.
In February 2022, Aliyev and Putin signed a "Declaration of Allied Interaction" which elevated ties between their countries on the basis of "mutual respect for ... territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of the two countries." The agreement also obliges Azerbaijan and Russia to "refrain from any actions, including those carried out through third states, directed against each other."
In August 2022, Azerbaijani forces took control of territory within and around the Lachin District, excluding the five km-wide Lachin corridor, which at the time was controlled by Russian peacekeepers. As part of the ceasefire agreement, parts of the highway were moved to avoid the cities of Lachin and Shusha, but still to be controlled by Russian peacekeeping forces. Artsakh authorities gave the residents of the villages along the corridor 20 days notice to evacuate. While Aliyev promised that long-term Armenian Lachin residents would be treated as citizens, he branded the remaining residents as "illegal settlers" and demanded that they be removed. Several analysts consider it unlikely that Azerbaijan will allow electricity, gas, and Internet infrastructure which currently exists along the Lachin corridor to be built along the new highway.
Prelude
In December 2022, the Azerbaijan government inaugurated its "Great Return" program, which ostensibly promotes the settlement of ethnic Azerbaijanis who once lived in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. As part of this program, a natural gas pipeline will be built between Agdam and Stapanakert which will begin operation in 2025 which is also when the Russian peacekeeping forces' mandate in Nagorno-Karabakh ends.
Azerbaijan has drawn parallels between the Lachin corridor and the "Zangezur corridor," a concept for an extraterritorial corridor through Armenia which Azerbaijan claims was part of the 2020 ceasefire agreement. Since the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijan has increasingly promoted irredentist claims to Armenian territory which it describes as "Western Azerbaijan" and has occupied sections of Armenia proper (distinct from Artsakh). Various analysts consider these actions and the blockade, itself, to be a coercive bargaining strategy aimed at extorting Armenians to relinquish control of Artsakh and concede the Zangezur corridor.
Speaking about Azerbaijan's demand for the Zangezur corridor, a senior Azerbaijani official reported to Eurasianet in November 2022, "What if we were to install a [border] post at the entrance of Lachin and finish the whole process? How can you breathe with no air?" Two weeks before the ongoing blockade started, the prime minister of Armenia said at a cabinet meeting, "The President of Azerbaijan is trying to create fictitious grounds for closing the Lachin Corridor, encircling the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and subjecting them to genocide and deportation under the pretext that Armenia is not fulfilling its obligations."
Blockade timeline
2022 events
3 December – Artsakh information headquarters reported that a group of Azerbaijanis blocked the Lachin corridor between Stepanakert and Goris at the intersection around Shusha–Dashalty. The road was later reopened after being closed for four hours, but Azerbaijan announced that it would send specialists to the location of the Russian peacekeepers.
10 December – the Ministries of Economy and Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan issued a joint statement indicating that they would be initiating environmental monitoring in the territory of the Republic of Artsakh. On the same day, a group of Azerbaijanis tried to enter the Kashen mine, but the mine's security staff did not allow it.
12 December – a group of Azerbaijanis calling themselves environmentalists blocked the Lachin corridor. According to the group, they are protesting the "illegal exploitation" of mineral deposits in the region. The participants placed tents in the middle of the road. According to Azerbaijani media, environmental groups protested after being denied access to the Drmbon and Kashin mines and demanded a meeting with the commander of the Russian peacekeepers at the time, Andrei Volkov. Human Rights Watch reported that Russian peacekeeping forces also barricaded the road to prevent further escalation of the situation if the participants were to advance to the mines in Artsakh.
13–16 December – Azerbaijan cut off the gas supply from Armenia to Artsakh. The Azerbaijani gas supply agency Azeriqaz denied involvement. On the evening of 13 December Azerbaijani media reported that Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan and the police arrived to the area of the protests to "ensure the security of the participants of the action".
14 December – Azerbaijani authorities claimed that it was the Russian peacekeeping forces which were blockading the corridor.
16 December – the alleged "ecoactivists" added to their list of demands "restoration of control by all state structures of Azerbaijan, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Border Service, and the State Customs Committee" along the Lachin corridor. One of the Azerbaijani self-described protesters Dilara Efendiyeva created a hotline to appeal for assistance in crossing the blockade; however, this has been dismissed as ingenuine or propaganda by many Armenians. On the same day, 40,000–70,000 Artsakh residents rallied in the capital Stepanakert in protest of the blockade, making it one of the largest protests in Nagorno-Karabakh since the 1988 Karabakh movement.
26 December – Armenia's Security Council secretary Armen Grigoryan stated that "Armenia is being forced to provide an extraterritorial corridor [referring to the Zangezur Corridor] and join the Union State," a view which Moscow later denied. This perception was echoed by other Armenian politicians and political analysts who claimed that Russia was using the blockade to obtain concessions from Armenia.
27 December – Azerbaijan specified that the blockade would be lifted if state monitors were permitted entry into the mining sites used by Artsakh.