Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has called for a bigger international presence to ease rising tensions with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh after Russia appointed one of its most senior army commanders to lead a peacekeeping force in the breakaway region.
Speaking during a government session on April 27, Pashinian accused Azerbaijan of provocation by installing a checkpoint in the Shushi region (Susa in Azeri), effectively cutting off four communities.
Yerevan already accuses Baku of inciting tensions with the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting the mostly Armenian-populated region with Armenia.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov has said the checkpoint was set up in response to "safety concerns in light of Armenia's continued misuse of the road for the transport of weapons and other illegal activities."
Baku says the blockade, which began on December 12, is the work of Azerbaijani "eco-activists" -- generally seen as acting at the behest of the government. Azerbaijani officials say that the road is open for humanitarian purposes, an assertion Yerevan bluntly rejects.
Pashinian accused Baku of not only increasing tensions in the region, but also blaming it for deepening a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"This should be the subject of attention of all of us, the international community," he said.
"Other than the Russian Federation, no one should control the Lachin Corridor," he added.
Pashinian's call came as French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna began a visit to Azerbaijan to hold talks on easing tensions in the South Caucasus. Armenia has already appealed to the International Court of Justice over the checkpoint.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have clashed over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. The mainly ethnic Armenian enclave is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. Russia has some 2,000 peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh after brokering a cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan in late 2020.
Russia said on April 26 it had appointed Colonel General Aleksandr Lentsov, the deputy commander in chief of the Russian ground forces, as the head of the peacekeeping force, replacing Major General Andrei Volkov, a more junior officer.
Moscow did not elaborate on the decision, but it came after Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.
Armenian officials have been critical of Moscow for seemingly allowing the blockade to continue. The Kremlin is notorious for violently breaking up domestic protests, but Russian peacekeepers have so far made no effort to reopen the road to Nagorno-Karabakh by force, RFE/RL reports.
