Nagorno-Karabakh routes reopen in Lachin corridor deal, say Azeri and Armenian sides

Azerbaijani checkpoint at the entry of the Lachin corridor to the Armenian-populated breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. Photograph: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images

Azerbaijan’s government and separatist Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh appeared to strike a deal reopening two disputed transport links including a key route known as the Lachin corridor.

The moves – initially reported by Armenia’s Armenpress state news agency and confirmed by Azerbaijan – appear at least partly to grant the latter’s decades-old demand to restore transport links between Azeri government-held territory and Nagorno-Karabakh, where Armenians seized control in the 1990s.