Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute increased, Russia said working on resolving it

Tbilisi, Georgia:

Russia said on Tuesday it is working hard to resolve the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking Armenia to the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The mountain road in Azerbaijan has been blocked since December 12, when protesters claiming to be environmental activists set up tents to block traffic. About 120,000 ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh rely on it for supplies of food, fuel and medicines.

The standoff has raised international concern, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on Monday for the immediate reopening of the route.

Russia is the main power broker in the region and peacekeeping forces are stationed along the Lachin Corridor. His failure to reopen it is a source of frustration for Armenia.

Asked to comment on Blinken’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “Russia continues painstaking and difficult work with both Armenia and Azerbaijan.” He didn’t elaborate.

Armenia says the protests were a deliberate blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijan has denied that the activists are conducting a legitimate protest against illegal mining activity.

The two countries have fought two wars since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)