YEREVAN, Armenia -- Hundreds of opposition supporters rallied in the Armenian capital on Wednesday, urging the government to act to unblock a vital road to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, after weeks of rising tension over Azerbaijani protests which choked off basic supplies to the territory.
Protesters urged the administration in Yerevan to “take appropriate measures” to secure the re-opening of the so-called Lachin corridor, the only supply route to ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been blocked by crowds from neighboring Azerbaijan since Dec. 12. Azeri authorities said on Tuesday that the protests would be suspended if monitors were given access to what Azerbaijan calls illegal mining sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Yerevan since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That conflict left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but large chunks of surrounding lands in Armenian hands.
In 44 days of heavy fighting that began in September 2020, the Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces and moved deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept a Russia-brokered peace deal that took effect in November that year. The agreement saw the return to Azerbaijan of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and also required Armenia to hand over swaths of land it held outside the separatist region.
The Lachin province, which lies between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, was the last of the three areas on the rim of Nagorno-Karabakh to be surrendered by Armenian forces in December 2020. Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to ensure safe transit across the region, monitor the peace deal and help the return of refugees.