On February 22, 2023 the United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan to “take all steps at its disposal” to restore free movement of traffic of people and goods along the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor between Artsakh and Armenia. Rulings of the ICJ are legally binding.
The corridor has been closed since December 12, 2022 under environmental pretext. On December 28, 2022 Armenia has filed a request to the ICJ for provisional measures ordering Azerbaijan to reopen the corridor and ending Artsakh’s illegal blockade.
“The disruption on the Lachin Corridor has impeded the transfer of persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin hospitalized in Nagorno-Karabakh to medical facilities in Armenia for urgent medical care. The evidence also indicates that there have been hindrances to the importation into Nagorno-Karabakh of essential goods, causing shortages of food, medicine and other life-saving medical supplies,” the decision reads.
President of Artsakh thanked the team of legal experts and “to all those involved in this proceeding for their most important mission.” President Harutyunyan called the ICJ decision “another irrefutable international legal evidence that the people of Artsakh, subjected to racial discrimination and hatred, cannot be subjugated to Azerbaijan.”
