French foreign minister to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan
YEREVAN, March 23. /ARKA/. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will visit Armenia and Azerbaijan.
She told the Senate the day before that she plans to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan at the end of April to discuss the situation around the Lachin corridor, Armenian Public Television reported.
"There is not enough food coming into Nagorno-Karabakh, and what comes is thanks to the Red Cross with the help of France. The free movement through Lachin corridor must be restored and the supplies to Karabakh should be better ensured. France doesn't talk, it acts," Colonna said.
On December 12, 2022 Azerbaijan effectively cut off access to Nagorno-Karabakh, letting a group of self-described Azerbaijani “eco-activists” with no history of environmental advocacy barge through Russian peacekeepers to block the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Local authorities had to close schools and put 120,000 inhabitants on ration cards as Azerbaijan continues to disrupt gas and electricity supplies.
Armenia’s leaders accuse Azerbaijan of seeking to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh by starving the local ethnic Armenian population and forcing it to leave.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in a January 10 TV interview: 'For those (of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians) who does not want to become Azerbaijani citizen, the road is not closed. They can leave. They can go on their own, or they can ride with Russian peacekeepers, or they can go by bus. The road to Armenia is open.” -0-
