Azerbaijan files second lawsuit against Armenia with ICJ for racial discrimination

6 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Government of Azerbaijan has sent a second demand to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to adopt “urgent measures” against Armenia for alleged racial discrimination, amid their bilateral tensions over the dispute over Nagorno Karabagh.

The Azeri Foreign Ministry has indicated in a statement that the lawsuit, which comes after another filed in September in response to a similar complaint by Yerevan, is due to the fact that “the continued and deliberate violations by Armenia of the human rights of the Azeri”.

Thus, it has pointed to “new evidence on the placement of antipersonnel mines and booby traps by Armenia in homes in the territory of Azerbaijan since 2021”, while accusing the neighboring country of “continued military provocations”.

“Since August 2022, more than 2,700 mines produced in Armenia in 2021 have been discovered. There is evidence that these mines were laid after Armenia agreed to the Trilateral Communiqué to cease all hostilities, withdraw its forces from Azerbaijan and allow the return of Azerbaijanis displaced to the liberated territories,” he said.

Along these lines, he has accused the Armenian authorities of “openly using the Lachín humanitarian highway to transport these mines and other weapons.” “Azerbaijan will continue its efforts to hold Armenia accountable for its violations of International Law”, he has stressed.

Azeri authorities decided in December to block the Lachín corridor and suspend gas supplies, according to Armenia. Following this, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) called on Azerbaijan to “take measures within its jurisdiction to ensure the safe passage through the Lachin corridor of seriously ill patients in need of medical treatment in Armenia and other people stranded in the road without a roof or means of subsistence”.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been involved in various confrontations in recent years over the control of Nagorno Karabagh, a territory with a majority Armenian population that has been the focus of conflict since it decided to separate in 1988 from the Azerbaijan region integrated into the Soviet Union.