[ad_1]
Azerbaijan on Tuesday temporarily shut the only road linking its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region with Armenia, accusing the Armenian branch of the Red Cross of smuggling.
Issued on:
The Armenian-populated region has been at the centre of a decades-long territorial dispute between the Caucasus arch-foes, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory.
The closure comes ahead of European Union-mediated talks in July between the ex-Soviet countries’ leaders, and as regional mediators, Washington, Brussels and Moscow, are distracted by the NATO summit in Lithuania.
“The passage through Lachin checkpoint of the state border is temporarily suspended” pending an investigation into the Red Cross using its medical vehicles for “smuggling”, Azerbaijan’s state border service said on Tuesday.
It said the decision was made after the Red Cross failed to “take necessary steps to prevent illegal actions” such as smuggling mobile phones from Armenia to Karabakh, using the organisation’s medical vehicles.
Armenia urged international action, calling the move part of Baku’s policy of “ethnic cleansing”.
“More international efforts and actions needed to lift” the Karabakh blockade and “to prevent ethnic cleansing,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Ani Badalyan said in an English-language Twitter post.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross denied Baku’s claims, saying that “no unauthorised material has been found in any vehicle belonging to ICRC.”
“However, we regret that without our knowledge four hired drivers tried to transport some commercial goods in their own vehicles which were temporarily displaying the ICRC emblem,” it added in a statement.
Humanitarian crisis
Azerbaijan in April set up the border point at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, exacerbating allegations from Armenia of a Karabakh “blockade”.
The Armenian…
[ad_2]
