Azerbaijan - December 2022

Azerbaijani government-backed protesters have blockaded the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia since 12 December, causing shortages of food and medicine in the region. The protesters claim ethnic Armenians in the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are illegally exporting minerals to Armenia via the road, and Azerbaijani government officials have alternatively blamed Russian peacekeepers and Nagorno-Karabakh residents themselves for the blockade, as well as denied the blockade’s existence. Armenians and the international community have described the blockade as a ploy by Azerbaijan to exert more direct control over the disputed territory.

Sources: EurasiaNet, Human Rights Watch, OC Media