Russia urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to restart efforts to normalize ties, as the U.N.'s top court on Wednesday ordered Baku to end its alleged blockade in the Karabakh region.
"The Russian side consistently contributes to the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. The Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian peacekeeping contingent, in close cooperation with the Foreign Ministry, are making vigorous efforts to resolve the situation around the Lachin corridor," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news conference.
"We call on our partners in Baku and Yerevan to resume rhythmic joint work as soon as possible in each of the areas of normalization of bilateral relations."
Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but was under Armenian occupation since 1991. In 2020, Azerbaijan retook territory in and around the enclave after a second war that ended in a Russian-brokered cease-fire. Talks to normalize Baku-Yerevan relations have continued since then.
Azerbaijani environmental activists have staged protests since Dec. 12 on the Lachin corridor, the only road across Azerbaijan that links Armenia to Karabakh and where Russian peacekeepers are on guard.
Yerevan says the protesters are government-backed, but Baku denies blockading the road.
But the ICJ ordered an end to the blockade.
"Azerbaijan shall, pending the final decision in this case... take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor in both directions," presiding judge Joan Donoghue said Wednesday.
"The disruption on the Lachin Corridor has impeded the transfer of persons of Armenian national and ethnic origin," she said, in a ruling handed down at the court's headquarters in The Hague.
Evidence presented during a court hearing last month showed there have been hindrances to the importation into Nagorno-Karabakh of essential goods, "causing shortages of food, medicine and other life-saving medical supplies," judge Donoghue said.
Therefore the court concluded that there is urgency and that there was "a risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused," the judge said.
