Thursday, 19 March 2020
Statement by RA Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on Situation at Upper Lars Checkpoint
Some 140 citizens of the Republic of Armenia are currently stranded at the Upper Lars checkpoint. Consul General of the Republic of Armenia in Rostov-on-Don Vardan Asoyan arrived at the checkpoint to coordinates efforts aimed at providing Armenian citizens with food and other basic necessities.
Following the appeals of the Consul General, part of our citizens preferred to return to Armenia by air transport. Negotiations are underway with Georgian colleagues to find solutions to the problem.
We call on the citizens of the Republic of Armenia to realistically assess the situation, to rely only on official information, as well as on information provided by diplomatic missions.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia earlier reported that the Gudauri-Kobi section of the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Lars highway remained closed due to adverse weather conditions.
Note that under a decision issued by the Government of Georgia, all foreigners will be banned from entering Georgia starting March 18. Consequently, even in case of improved weather conditions and after the opening of the motorway, only trucks and citizens of Georgia and Russia returning to their homeland can cross the Russian-Georgian border. The road through the Upper Lars checkpoint shall be closed for foreign citizens for an indefinite period.
We once again urge our fellow countrymen to use the air route, in particular the nearest airports of Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don, to return from Russia to Armenia.
