You are currently viewing A Humanitarian Crisis With Catastrophic Outlooks: The Impact Of The Lachin Corridor Blockade Within The Armenian-Azeri Conflict Over Nagorno-Karabakh

A Humanitarian Crisis With Catastrophic Outlooks: The Impact Of The Lachin Corridor Blockade Within The Armenian-Azeri Conflict Over Nagorno-Karabakh

Written by Jacopo Maria Bosica

Edited by Miguel Andres Reyes Castro

Supervised by Ginevra Bertamini

Since hostilities revamped in September 2020 after a long latency period, the ethnic Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh has suffered from inhuman and degrading treatment by the Azeri forces trying to restate control over the contended province. Notwithstanding the presence of Russian peacekeepers and the conditions imposed by the ceasefire agreement reached after the Second Karabakh War, Baku restricted locals’ freedom of movement with measures like the blockade on the Lachin Corridor, which represents the only road connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. As a result, since December 2022, ethnic Armenians have been suffering from food and medical supply shortages, which has led, to little avail, the highest international courts to order Azerbaijan to reopen the corridor. In September 2023, after an apparent pledge in this direction for outbound flows, Baku forces reclaimed full control over the province, arrested local institutions’ leading figures and caused an exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians towards the mainland.