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<\/a><\/p>\nBy Nailia Bagirova<\/p>\n
BAKU (Reuters) -French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna urged Azerbaijan on Thursday to remove a newly installed checkpoint on the road linking Armenia to the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, on the first leg of a delicate trip to both countries.<\/p>\n
Her comments in Baku drew a sharp retort from her Azerbaijani counterpart that highlighted the sensitivities of her mission.<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two wars in the past three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians and run by a separatist administration.<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan set up a new checkpoint on Sunday on the road to Karabakh, the Lachin corridor, in a move Armenia that called a gross violation of a 2020 ceasefire between the two countries, and which also sparked U.S. concern.<\/p>\n
“We deplore the unilateral measures taken by Azerbaijan at the start of the Lachin corridor,” Colonna told a news conference with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. “Freedom of movement in the corridor is essential to re-establish trust.”<\/p>\n
Bayramov responded that Azerbaijan had been saying for 2-1\/2 years that Armenia was using the route to transfer weapons and fighters to Karabakh, “but I don’t remember France making any statement against Armenia”.<\/p>\n
BLOCKADE<\/p>\n
The checkpoint marked a sharp escalation in a months-long blockade of Karabakh that began in December, when Azerbaijani civilians identifying themselves as environmental activists shut down the road to traffic.<\/p>\n
Ethnic Armenians in Karabakh complain of a humanitarian crisis, while Armenia is increasingly unhappy with the failure of Russian peacekeepers to keep the road open.<\/p>\n
Separately, Moscow said deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin had held one-on-one meetings with the Armenian and Azeri ambassadors to discuss the Lachin corridor and Karabakh.<\/p>\n
Galuzin underlined the importance of sticking to agreements that Russia had signed with both nations on the normalisation of relations, the foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Russia said on Wednesday it had appointed a new head of its Karabakh peacekeeping force.<\/p>\n
Colonna rejected a reporter’s suggestion that France was biased against Azerbaijan, saying its only interest was to secure peace.<\/p>\n
She said reopening the Lachin corridor was a point of international law and a question of restoring trust.<\/p>\n
“If you want to nourish the peace process, yes we need gestures of a kind that can help rebuild confidence,” she said.<\/p>\n
(Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Felix Light and David LjunggrenEditing by Gareth Jones and Frances Kerry)<\/p>\n
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