April 16 () –
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of completing its ethnic cleansing with the seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh in September by the Azeri Army, which forced two-thirds of the population to flee, during a hearing in The Hague. , Netherlands, within the framework of the lawsuit filed by Yerevan against Baku.
“In September 2023, after starving ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh for nine months by blocking the Lachin corridor, in flagrant violation of the court's first two orders, Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked attack, killing hundreds and forcing more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee their homes,” explained the representative of Armenia, Yegishe Kirakosyan.
In this sense, he has indicated that after threatening to carry out this ethnic cleansing “for years”, Baku “completed” the erasure of the Armenian community in the region and is now trying to consolidate it by “systematically erasing all traces of Armenian presence, including the cultural and religious heritage”.
Kirakosyan recalled, however, that the turning point after “decades” of “state hate policies” against Armenians came three years earlier: in September 2020 during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. “The stated goal was to eliminate and expel ethnic Armenians from their homeland,” he added.
“There is no better example of racial discrimination that disrupts peace and security than the recent armed aggressions of Azerbaijan, which resulted in ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh,” he reiterated before the court.
ABOUT THE NEGOTIATIONS
Likewise, Kirakosyan has accused Baku of “calling into question the jurisprudence of the court”, as well as of “distorting reality” in the face of “the interpretation of the negotiation requirement” between the parties under Article 22 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
“When Azerbaijan made an alleged call for joint action, it was at the same time torturing ethnic Armenian detainees and destroying Armenian cultural heritage,” he stressed, adding that while calling for negotiations “it was ridiculing Armenians with racist dummies.”
“Armenia has negotiated in good faith and has conducted discussions beyond the point of futility. Armenia has complied with the requirements of Article 22 in letter and spirit, and Azerbaijan's first objection has failed,” he concluded.
His words come after Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov argued in court that Yerevan has failed to engage in prerequisite negotiations with Azerbaijan and has used the process to “launch a media campaign.” against Baku.
Mammadov further noted that this area “was illegally invaded between 1991 and 1994 and later occupied by Armenia for more than 30 years, in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
CASE BEFORE THE ICJ
In September 2021, Armenia submitted a petition to the highest court of the United Nations to impose precautionary measures against Azerbaijan for inciting “for decades” hatred against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result of this state-sponsored policy, the population has suffered “systemic discrimination, mass murder, torture and other abuses,” according to Yerevan.
Even after the ceasefire that came into effect in 2020 between the parties, “Azerbaijan continued to commit murder, torture and other abuses against prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees,” reads the document presented by Armenia.
It also accused Azerbaijan of “systematically” destroying, erasing and falsifying Armenian culture through the demolition of Armenian cultural, religious and historical monuments.
Nagorno Karabakh is a territory of about 4,400 square kilometers in the South Caucasus recovered by Azerbaijan in a military offensive of just 24 hours that began on September 19, after the wars between 1988 and 1994 and that of 2020.
Armenia assured at the end of September 2023 that 88,000 people had to flee the region after the Azerbaijan Army took control of the area, which represented around two thirds of the population that the territory had before. of the offensive.
