Russian analysts explain accelerated transfer of villages of Lachin Corridor to Azerbaijan

The 2020 agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh does not define the territorial affiliation of the Lachin Corridor and its borders, which allowed each side to interpret the agreements in its own way. Azerbaijan, feeling its military superiority, has achieved a change in the route of the Lachin Corridor, Russian analysts point out.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the head of the Kashatag District of Nagorno-Karabakh announced that the settlements of Nerkin Sous, Berdzor, and Akhavno (Azerbaijani names are Sous, Lachin, and Zabukh, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”), will be handed over to Azerbaijan on August 25. Azerbaijani firefighters and Russian peacekeepers arrived in Lachin after two villagers in the Lachin Corridor burned their houses before evacuation. The deployment of Azerbaijani firefighters in Berdzor is an instrument of pressure, Armenian human rights defender Arthur Sakunts believes.

The territorial status of the Lachin Corridor is not defined in the agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, geographer Aleksei Gunya notes. Even if there were some behind-the-scenes additional agreements on the situation in Karabakh between the parties, they do not play a big role, the expert believes.

Viktor Nadein-Raevsky, a senior researcher at the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, points out the need to protect the territory around the Lachin Corridor.

The expert believes that control over this territory should not be carried out only by Azerbaijan. “Karabakh is inhabited by Armenians, and its territory was ‘donated’ by the Bolsheviks to Azerbaijan,” Viktor Nadein-Raevsky noted.