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Some are worried that the road will not be passable by normal cars after winter.
One driver told local news station 1lurer.am: “The winter looks rough. “The road is not suitable for cold weather, I need to get a new car. I drive a taxi, and this road is not meant for such cars, I need a four-wheel drive,” said another.
The origin of the Eurasian was very uncertain. “It’s dangerous in winter, but it’s manageable if you plow the road when it snows,” he said.
While the old road had a maximum of 17 percent, the new road has up to 22 percent of seats, said Michael Nahapetyan, a senior member of the opposition Citizens’ Decision Party.
Describing the road as a dangerous “trap for Armenians”, local authorities criticized the road being allowed to be constructed in this way. “This real ‘alternative’ route will deprive Artsakh of a stable and reliable connection with Armenia during the winter,” he said in a Facebook post, using Armenia’s name for Karabakh.
The Ministry of Urban Development of Nagorno-Karabakh assured residents that the road meets international standards and maintains the road to ensure safe transportation even in winter. On some very sharp bends, he saw the addition of a third lane for safety.
Another concern is that an Azerbaijani military base is said not to be located on the new road. Although the cease-fire declaration calls for Russian peacekeeping forces to control a five-kilometer zone around the road, a post near the village of Kirov (Armenians call it Hin Shen) is only 800 meters from the new road. Local residents blame the Azerbaijani soldiers for stones thrown at cars on the road, Hin Shen community leader Samvel Sargsyan told news channel 1lurer.am.
But the road could create new economic opportunities for Hin Shen and other communities along the new route, Sargsyan said.
The new road is not completely finished. Although the cease-fire agreement stipulates that a plan to build a new road should be made within three years, Azerbaijan will complete most of the section within a year and a half, and Armenia has begun pressuring it to speed up its section. Azerbaijan’s offensive in early August appeared motivated, at least in part, to force swift action.
That month, Armenia began construction on a 10-kilometer section of its territory that would connect the new road with the Karabakh border to the current village of Teg. To speed up the new road, the Karabakh Armenians quickly built a five-kilometer temporary bypass until the new road was completed in Armenia.
“While Azerbaijan is taking continuous and rapid steps to build a new road that contributes to the security and peaceful coexistence of peoples, the Armenian side is unnecessarily delaying the construction of a section that passes through its territory,” Azerbaijani parliament member Mazhir Efendiyev told state news agency Azertak.
Armenian authorities argued that they had three years to come up with the construction plan with Azerbaijan under the ceasefire agreement. Following Azerbaijan’s attack on the Lachin Corridor in August, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said Azerbaijan’s request to stop using the old route was illegitimate because “Armenia did not accept any plan”.
The fate of another incomplete section, which is a little less clear, is closer to Stepanakert. The main reason for the new route was to bypass the city of Shusha. [Shushi]Only the current way makes a dress.
But the priority was the part of the new road that went around Lachine. For many Azerbaijanis, their country’s conquests in the region seemed incomplete until they took control of these communities. Shortly after the 2020 ceasefire was signed, Aliyev expressed the need to regain control of Lachin. “If Lachin… does not return to Azerbaijan, there can be no agreement,” he said.
Similarly, the entry of Azerbaijani troops into Lachin on August 26 was widely celebrated in Azerbaijan.
But the urgency for a new road bypassing Shushan seems to have waned.
A source in the Karabakh government, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Eurasia: “For now there are no real plans for it.” “The first part has been implemented but there are no discussions about the second part that will pass Shushin [the Armenian name for the city]. Not sure at the moment.
The inauguration of the road comes as Armenians and Azerbaijanis are negotiating another strategic road, connecting Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan province with the Armenian territory and connecting it to the rest of the country. Azerbaijan calls the future route “Zangezur Corridor”. He argued Its legal arrangements should be similar to those on the Lachine Corridor.
Azerbaijani military analyst Adalet Valiyev argued that the new Karabakh road is “only a road, not a corridor” and will be part of current negotiations on the other road. “His [the new Karabakh road’s] The future situation is more related to the situation given to the Zangezur Corridor,” he told news agency APA.
Armenians rejected the comparison.
“The term corridor is unacceptable to us, and this is a red line for us, because in our region, according to the tripartite declaration, we have one corridor, and this is the Lachin corridor,” said Pashinyan. Interview with Al Jazeera, June 14.
(Originally published on Eurasianet.org)
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