Lachin - Nagorno-Karabakh War

Nagorno-Karabakh War

Lachin town and the surrounding rayon were the location of severe fighting during the 1990-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and the town has not recovered from the destruction of that war. Lachin is the most important town under Armenian control because of the Lachin corridor which attaches Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Minsk Group co-chairs noted that "Lachin has been treated as a separate case in previous negotiations." This is because Lachin is Nagorno Karabakh's humanitarian and security corridor. Without it, Nagorno-Karabakh would remain an isolated enclave. It is because of Lachin's political and geographic reality and security dimension, that it is viewed differently in the negotiation process. The Lachin corridor and the Kelbajar district have been at the center of Armenian demands during the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks with Azerbaijan.