About 30 vehicles freely move via Lachin-Khankendi road on daily basis Azerbaijan's OSCE rep says

An average of 30 vehicles have crossed the Lachin-Khankendi road in both directions unhindered on a daily basis since early January.

Azerbaijan's permanent representative to the OSCE, Rovshan Sadigbayli, made the statement at a special meeting of the organisation’s Permanent Council in response to Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan's remarks, APA reports.

“Today we would like to say once again that Azerbaijan did not impose any restrictions on car traffic on Lachin road. The protesters have no desire to block the road. News and videos circulated on social networks show that various vehicles, including civilian vehicles, ambulances, as well as ICRC vehicles pass unhindered along the road,” Sadigbayli stressed.

“Claims alleging humanitarian consequences of the situation are also false. This is nothing more than another manifestation of Armenia's manipulation of the situation for clearly malicious political purposes. There are no impediments to the delivery of goods or the provision of essential medical services to the locals. However, the Azerbaijani government has taken the possible negative consequences of the situation seriously and in recent weeks has stated several times that it is ready to solve any humanitarian problems of our Armenian citizens on the ground. Since the start of the peaceful protests, from December 12, 2022 to January 15, 2023, a total of 644 vehicles of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, the ICRC [International Committee of Red Cross] and local Armenians have passed unhindered along the Lachin road in both directions. From January 5 to 15, 2023 an average of 30 vehicles travelled in both directions per day. Most of these were large vehicles carrying food and medical supplies to Khankendi,” the OSCE representative said.

He also noted the attempts by the Armenian side to prevent local Armenians from using the road to use the situation to distract the attention of the international community from Armenia's failure to fulfil its obligations, adding that the Armenian side bears full responsibility for the possible consequences of these actions.

“The sooner the legitimate concerns of the Azerbaijani authorities and the general public about the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the use of the road for military purposes are addressed, the sooner the situation will be resolved," the permanent representative added.