ECHR partly grants Armenia's Lachin road complaint
BAKU. Dec 22 (Interfax) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday partly granted the Armenian government's complaint concerning the Lachin road, but rejected Yerevan's request to impose interim measures on Baku to "unblock" this road.
"The court decided [...] to indicate to the Government of Azerbaijan, under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, to take all measures that are within their jurisdiction to ensure safe passage through the 'Lachin Corridor' of seriously ill persons in need of medical treatment in Armenia and others who were stranded on the road without shelter or means of subsistence," the ECHR said in a press release.
According to the ECHR, the Armenian government asked the court to impose interim measures on Azerbaijan and to order it "to unblock the 'Lachin Corridor' and allow the safe passage of seriously ill and other Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh and restore the supply of natural gas."
Yerevan alleged that environmental activists "blocked off" all traffic on the motorway in the Lachin district, "thereby preventing seriously ill Armenians" in Nagorno-Karabakh from travelling to Armenia for hospital care and "cutting off supplies of food and other necessities," the court said.
The government of Azerbaijan, however, denied this allegation, stating that the Lachin Corridor is under the control of Russian peacekeeping forces, the ECHR said.
The court also noted that the extent to which the Azerbaijani government is currently in control of the situation in the Lachin Corridor is "unclear" at this stage.