5/2/2024 Armenia/Azerbaijan (International Christian Concern) — Delegates of Armenia and Azerbaijan are engaged in legal battles over the Artsakh conflict, arguing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague.
The litigation dates back to September 2021, when Armenia filed a suit accusing Azerbaijan of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1965. Less than one week later, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of similar violations under the ICERD.
At the time, Armenia argued that Azerbaijan had “captured, tortured, and arbitrarily detained numerous members of Armenian armed forces and civilians” and “destroy[ed] Armenian cultural heritage and religious sites or negate the Armenian character.” Azerbaijan claimed that it had released most prisoners and that the detainees remaining were convicted or being prosecuted for murder or espionage charges. Less than one week later, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of similar violations under the ICERD.
In April 2024, Azerbaijan argued that the court did not have jurisdiction in Armenia’s case because the two countries had not first engaged in serious negotiations to settle their disputes. The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov alleged that “Armenia had its sights firmly set on commencing these proceedings before the court and using the effect of these proceedings to wage a public media campaign against Azerbaijan.”
In the case brought by Azerbaijan, Armenia also denied that the court had jurisdiction. An Armenian delegate, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, argued, “Azerbaijan cannot be allowed to sit on its alleged grievances under CERD for nearly 30 years, only to finally pursue them after many witnesses are long gone and the evidence has disappeared.”
The ICJ had previously ordered both Armenia and Azerbaijan to deescalate tensions, ordering the latter in February 2023 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure transit along the Lachin Corridor when Azerbaijani protestors had blocked the only road connecting Armenia to Artsakh, a breakaway enclave internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians.
Despite the court order, the partial blockade by the protestors became a complete siege by Azerbaijani security forces within a few months in a prelude to the eventual invasion and conquest of Artsakh in September 2023.
Before the invasion, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenian Christians lived in Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh.
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