© Official Photo
On 12 September, after nearly months of not receiving any, humanitarian assistance finally arrived in Karabakh, albeit not without controversy. Having crossed the border between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation three days earlier, it was meant to travel from Samur to Askeran via Baku, Barda, and Aghdam. However, it remained delayed for days as some wondered whether it would ever arrive at all.
But arrive it did, carrying humanitarian assistance comprising food items, medicines, hygienic goods, and blankets in a single truck sent by the Russian Red Cross Society. Ethnic Armenians in Askeran on the Line of Contact (LoC) between that part of Karabakh under the control of Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijan proper had initially vowed not to let it pass but eventually acquiesced.
However, two trucks of the Azerbaijan Red Crescent remain stuck in limbo. On the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan, at least 21 trucks sent by Yerevan and two from France also remain parked. However, Baku’s approval for receiving them was not requested as is normal for humanitarian assistance.
Nonetheless, the agreement on delivering humanitarian assistance sent from Russia came the same day as Samvel Shahramanyan was s/elected as de facto president of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) following Arayik Harutyunyan’s resignation on 1 September. The day after the eventual arrival of the Red Cross Society truck, the European Union effectively welcomed the move even despite being at loggerheads with Russia over Ukraine.
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The full article can be read here.
