Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2023 Westminster Hall

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Hollobone, for the opportunity to take part in today’s timely debate on the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has now entered its 44th day. I congratulate the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) on leading the debate and on his excellent speech. He is a hard act to follow, but I will do my best in four and a half minutes. I thank him for the attention he has drawn to the plight of the population in Artsakh, where people are under siege and cannot travel. They are cut off from food, medical and other vital supplies and are still enduring energy blackouts in the depths of a harsh winter.

I join the hon. Member in condemning the blockade by Azerbaijan and asking the UK Government to do all they can to help with their diplomatic levers. The people of Nagorno-Karabakh have the right to live freely and independently, and it would be good to hear from the Minister what measures, apart from strongly worded statements, the Government are willing to take in order to work with others to end the blockade and resolve the issues by diplomatic and peaceful means.

I declare an interest as a member of the all-party parliamentary group on Armenia and a member of the delegation that went to Yerevan last year, and I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. As part of that delegation, as the hon. Member mentioned, we met and listened to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, which I know will have had an impact on us all. It certainly had an impact on me and was a real reminder of the human cost of the decades-long pattern of hostility and conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

As the hon. Member said, this small and landlocked region has been disputed for decades, with animosity regularly boiling over since the early 1990s, and a descent into full-scale violence and hundreds of deaths in September 2020. The trilateral ceasefire agreed later that year now feels incredibly fragile, with the lifeline guaranteed by the agreement now violated.

The current blockade of the corridor—the only passage between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia—by Azerbaijan from 12 December has severed the only lifeline that the Artsakh Armenians have to the outside world. That is 120,000 Armenians now encircled and isolated. It is claimed that the road blockade has been initiated by environmental activists, but most feel that its intended effect is to isolate the population from Armenia.

As the hon. Member said, the blockade is an escalation of the cutting off of the gas supply during a freezing winter last year—a move that was repeated last month and will impact on some 80% of the population whose homes are supplied with gas. That is in the depths of winter, with temperatures dropping below minus 5° yesterday. Schools and nurseries have been forced to close and hospitals are struggling to operate.

The blockade has left families separated and most patients unable to travel for treatment in Yerevan. There is a shortage of medical supplies and no hot running water. As UNICEF has highlighted, children in the region are especially impacted, with parental separation and a lack of access to vital services. All this comes after 30 years in which the Lachin corridor has been open and functioning despite bitter tensions—but not now. The timing of the power blackouts, coupled with the blockade, feels designed to cause the greatest amount of human suffering possible during the winter months, to force a desired political outcome.

Like other Members, I am keen to hear from the Minister what role the Government will play by joining other countries in their condemnation. Of course, it is important that the persecution and terrorisation of the Armenian Christian population is met with united international condemnation, but it is also important that the UK Government use their leverage as a close diplomatic trading partner of Azerbaijan.

I am keen to hear about the release of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, and the Government’s view on that. Also, it would be good to know what discussions the Government have had about working with other countries on the logistics of an airlift and whether the Government are supportive of the EU’s joint motion on the blockade, which was made last Wednesday, and to understand the Government’s position in respect of the Caucasus.

Finally, it was a real privilege to be part of the delegation to Armenia last year. Coming from Wales, it is hard not to feel an affinity with another small, proud and mountainous country of 3 million people. Links between Wales and Armenia are long established, and the Armenian genocide memorial at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff was the first of its kind in the UK.

It has been a pleasure to meet members of the Armenian community in south Wales, who feel a strong connection with their ancestral home. Speaking to Armenians and the Armenian diaspora, it is hard not to be struck by their deep longing for peace—a burning desire informed by tragic history. It is understandable, then, that the Armenian people are more alert than most to where intolerance and violence can lead unless a light is shone upon it while there is still time. This is such a moment and the international community has a duty to do all it can now to work towards peace.