EU mission warns of new offensive after Azerbaijani advance on Artsakh

Azerbaijani armed forces cross line of contact (NKR InfoCenter)

The head of the European Union monitoring mission in Armenia has warned that Armenians are fearful of a new military escalation by Azerbaijan, days after Azerbaijani armed forces crossed the line of contact in Artsakh.  

“Many Armenians believe there’ll be a spring offensive by Azerbaijan. If this doesn’t happen, our mission is already a success,” Markus Ritter told the German DW this week. The EU deployed a two-year civilian mission in January to routinely patrol the Armenian border and contribute to stability in the region. 

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry denounced Ritter’s statement as “false and slanderous.” It condemned any framing that presents the EU mission’s main task as “protecting Armenia from Azerbaijan.”

Ritter’s warning comes after several weeks of heightened tensions in Artsakh and increasingly bellicose rhetoric from Azerbaijan, with Armenian and Azerbaijani observers warning of an imminent military offensive by Azerbaijan. 

On March 27, Artsakh authorities accused Azerbaijani armed forces of firing at civilians working in their pomegranate orchard near the town of Martakert. Artsakh previously accused Azerbaijani armed forces of firing on civilians on March 15, March 19 and March 22. 

That same day, the Azerbaijani armed forces attempted a second advance across the line of contact near the Stepanakert-Lisagor road in Artsakh. The incursion was repelled by the Artsakh Defense Army. 

On March 25, the Azerbaijani armed forces crossed the line of contact and seized a height near the Stepanakert-Lisagor road.

That same day, the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh confirmed that Azerbaijan had violated the ceasefire in its daily bulletin. Russian peacekeeping forces have been deployed to the height and are negotiating with the Azerbaijani side to retreat, according to Artsakh authorities. Neither Russia nor Azerbaijan have confirmed this. 

“The authorities expect the peacekeeping troops to take practical steps in order to eliminate the consequences of this violation and prevent new ones,” the Artsakh information headquarters said

The Stepanakert-Lisagor road has been used since the start of the Artsakh blockade to transfer civilians and humanitarian goods. The road is mountainous and difficult to travel along and was rarely used before the start of the blockade. Azerbaijan has closed the Lachin Corridor, the main route connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the outside world, since December 12, 2022. 

The Stepanakert-Lisagor road also connects Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert with Lisagor, Yeghtsahogh, Hin Shen and Mets Shen, several villages near occupied Shushi. It is the only route within Artsakh that bypasses the blockaded highway. 

“The authorities of Artsakh have stated several times that under the conditions of the blockade that started on December 12, this mountain road is used for the organization of civil and urgent communication between Stepanakert and the four communities of Shushi region, which is carried out by tall vehicles, taking into account the very difficult and dangerous terrain of the area,” the Artsakh information headquarters said in a statement in response to Azerbaijan’s military advance. 

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry justified its provocation, stating that it had taken “necessary local control measures” to “suppress the use of dirt roads north of the Lachin road for illegal activities.” It accused Artsakh officials of using the road to convey soldiers, military equipment and weapons from Armenia. It also published footage of construction and improvement work along the Stepanakert-Lisagor road, which it called illegal. 

Footage of reported construction work on Stepanakert-Lisagor road released by Azerbaijan (NKR InfoCenter)

Artsakh authorities said that Azerbaijan falsely accuses Artsakh of transporting ammunition along the Stepanakert-Lisagor road as a “pretext for their next aggressive and destructive actions.” 

The Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh said that the “Azerbaijani side was informed about the need to comply with the provisions of the tripartite agreements of the heads of state, take measures to stop engineering work and withdraw units of the national armed forces to their previously occupied positions.” 

After a phone conversation with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov on March 27, US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried “expressed concern over Azerbaijani military movements.” 

In the days leading up to the Azerbaijani advance, Azerbaijani authorities repeatedly accused Artsakh of transporting military equipment from Armenia. On March 24, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that a combat vehicle belonging to the Russian peacekeeping force had escorted Armenian military vehicles along the Stepanakert-Lisagor road. 

Azerbaijan has regularly claimed that Armenia delivers military equipment to Artsakh. Azerbaijani authorities have invoked this claim to demand the establishment of checkpoints along the Lachin Corridor. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry reiterated this demand after the March 25 military advance, stating that the “recent provocations by Armenia demonstrate that in order to prevent illegal activities in the sovereign territories of Azerbaijan, it is necessary to establish a border control checkpoint between Azerbaijan and Armenia at the end point of the Lachin road.”

On March 8, three Artsakh police officers traveling along the Stepanakert-Lisagor road were killed in an ambush by a dozen Azerbaijani soldiers. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said that its armed forces had been sent to the route to inspect the vehicle for weapons, ammunition, military personnel and landmines. 

On February 22, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected a request for provisional measures ordering Armenia to halt any efforts to plant mines in territories that came under Azerbaijani control at the end of the 2020 Artsakh War, including “the use of the Lachin Corridor for this purpose.” On the same day, the ICJ ruled that Azerbaijan must “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”

Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian is the assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly. She reports on international women's rights, South Caucasus politics, and diasporic identity. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Democracy in Exile, and Girls on Key Press. She holds master's degrees in journalism and Near Eastern studies from New York University.

13 Comments

  1. Since when is defending yourself against barbaric
    aggressors “illegal”. Nearly everything that Azerbaijan
    does is a breach of international law, existing agreements
    or other acts of unilateral aggression.
    When it comes to defending ourselves in Artsakh, both Azerbaijan and Russia have violated the illustrious trilateral
    agreement at the expense of the Armenians yet when they
    defend themselves the poorest example of playing by the rules, Axerbaijan, issues warming. This is absurd and Europe needs to understand that thugs never are deterred by passive responses.

    • Europe is selfish lf we take a look in 90s they supported bosnian and albanian jehadists against christian serbs then they did oil agreement with saudi arabia and gulf arab states,honesty is the finest,l dont trust EU

    • Zelensky was well received in the UK because he drew a parallel with UK opposition to Hitler in WW2, and to the Anschluss of Austria. The case for the de jure recognition of Artsakh, and the inviolability of its airspace and territory needs to be made in similar language.

  2. Armenia is were it is today because Armenians continue waiting for Europe or America to come to the rescue. Repeating the tragic stupidity between 1018 and 1921.

    • One’s best friend should be oneself recent events the 2020 conflict and Russia in Ukraine shows that Armenia needs to be realistic about Russia aswell actually and less habit bound that it’s been as a hangover from the soviet era and blighted its economic and foreign policies. Russia ain’t going to nuke Baku for you

  3. Meanwhile Pashinyan is taking selfies and fantasizing that the way to stop Azeri aggression is by building a movie theater in some godforsaken place… When will Armenians wake up and get rid of this dunce?

    • The people are busy drinking coffee, fleeing to Glendale, committing fraud and driving expensive leased cars.

  4. Armenia has been sold and is finished. They will give up their identity and history for the dishonor of joining the ranks of you know who. Pash is going to bury Armenia and deliver the eulogy as well.

    • The paradox about Armenia of the south Caucasian trio is that it didn’t have a border with Russia and an ancient diaspora who kept their identity well yet was the most insular and narrow minded and habit bound in its foreign policy.

  5. There is no hope for Armenia. It has been sold and is joining the dishonorable list of countries of the NWO. Pash is there to bury Armenia and to deliver the eulogy.

  6. Every Armenian home in Artsakh should have at least 2 machine guns for their protection Lets not give up our guns In 1915 after the Turks took all the guns away from the Armenians two days later they came in the houses and massacred every one. Lets not make the same stupid mistake.

    • If our leaders had any brain they would have encouraged the Diaspora Armenians to leave their politically unstable host countries and move to Artsakh and its surrounding regions two decades ago. They could have offered them free land and other incentives in return for one family member serving in the Artsakh defense army. This would not only have tripled or quadrupled the Armenian population of Artsakh but it would also have increased their fighting force and strengthened their defenses. Imagine if out of perhaps ten million Diaspora Armenians worldwide only 5% or 500,000 moved there, majority of them from the neighboring countries most likely, and assuming that number made up a total of 100,000 families, that means Artsakh defense army would have had an additional 100,000 soldiers serving in their army. That means Artsakh alone, without taking into account the Armenian army in Armenia, would have had an army equal to or even bigger in number than all of artificial Azerbaijan! Now, that would have been a force to reckon with. That would have changed everything and in our favor for sure! When you have a large Armenian population in liberated Armenian territories invested in the land and in the army, fully backs and supports the army, rest-assured that army will fight a hundred times harder than it otherwise would because then they would be fully committed to fight to protect their families and the homeland. Our short-sighted and selfish corrupt leaders failed us!

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