Tensions ease as humanitarian aid reaches Nagorno-Karabakh

Tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh slightly eased on Monday as aid deliveries resumed to the breakaway region following a deal between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijani authorities.

Yerevan had accused Baku of fueling a humanitarian crisis in the conflicted enclave – internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan – by closing the sole road linking the territory with Armenia. It said the closure of the Lachin corridor, which is policed by Russian peacekeepers, had led to food and medicine shortages.

Baku has in turn said separatists refused its proposal to reopen the corridor. The European Union and the United States have called for the reopening of the Lachin and Aghdam routes for humanitarian aid.

Separatist authorities confirmed that 25 tons of wheat flour from Armenia as well as medical supplies had been delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh. 

The months-long crisis, as well as Azerbaijan's deployment of troops near Nagorno-Karabakh and along the border with Armenia, had sparked fears of a fresh war between the arch-foes locked in a decades-long dispute over the region.

The "simultaneous passage of the Red Cross cars was ensured" through the Lachin corridor and the Aghdam road, Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijan's president, said on social media.

"The whole international community once again witnessed that there was no so-called blockade but a deliberate self-blockade, weaponization, and politicization of humanitarian issues," he added.

Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated enclave was at the center of two wars between Yerevan and Baku in 2020 and in the 1990s. Six weeks of fighting ended in 2020 with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled since the 1990s.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have said they are committed to the conflict's peaceful settlement, but the negotiations have so far failed to bring about a breakthrough.