The only road linking Armenia and Artsakh was reopened today after a group of Azerbaijanis in civilian clothes had blocked a crossroads of the artery near the village of Karin Tak for two hours.

Negotiations, mediated by Russian peacekeepers, with Azerbaijan to open the road lasted for three hours.

At the intersection, one section of the road leads to the town of Shushi, which Azerbaijan captured in the 2020 war, and another to the Artsakh capital of Stepanakert.

Baku identified the people as staffers of its ecology and environmental ministries and employees of the state-owned AzerGold mining company, claiming they were dispatched to the area to investigate alleged illegal mining.

The Artsakh Information Headquarters described the incident as another Azerbaijani provocation designed to cut off Artsakh from Armenia and psychologically terrorize Artsakh civilians.

Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan, in a statement released before the road’s reopening, said Artsakh’s population of 120,000 have been subjected to a complete blockade and face an impending humanitarian disaster.

“Azerbaijan’s deliberate closure of the only road connecting Artsakh and Armenia is another manifestation of its policy of intimidation and genocide against the people of Artsakh,” he added.

Stepanyan called on the international community to properly respond to such illegal acts by Baku.