Azerbaijan vs Armenia in UN court: what happened in Hague?
The UN International Court of Justice held hearings on the Azerbaijan vs Armenia case. Baku accuses Yerevan of violating the International Convention on the Abolition of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The interests of Azerbaijan were represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov in court.
Prior to that, the UN International Court of Justice held hearings on a similar claim by Armenia against Azerbaijan.
On September 24, 2021, Azerbaijan filed a lawsuit, according to which “Armenia has committed and continues to commit discriminatory actions against Azerbaijanis on the basis of their national and ethnic origin”.
- How Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan see Armenian-Azerbaijani problems
- Armenia’s Security Council Secretary: There will be no exchange of territories with Azerbaijan
- Op-ed: Azerbaijan has a plan if OSCE Minsk Group returns to the issue of the status of Armenians in Karabakh
Speaking in court, Mammadov noted that Azerbaijan considers it necessary to urgently introduce temporary interim measures against Armenia: “Armenia’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and incitement to violence continues and in order to prevent irreparable damage to Azerbaijanis, temporary interim measures are urgently required”.
The deputy minister gave information about the death, injury, seizure of civilians as a result of the Khojaly tragedy in 1992. “In the eyes of the Armenian armed formations, their only crime was that they are ethnic Azerbaijanis. For this reason alone, they were killed, taken hostage, tortured, driven out of their homes. Armenia has been continuing the policy of ethnic cleansing for decades”, he said.
According to Mammadov, temporary interim measures against Armenia are necessary to protect people against an immediate threat: “Having sheltered armed groups, financing the spread of disinformation and supporting the like, Armenia continues the violence and incitement of hatred against Azerbaijanis”.
Elnur Mammadov called on the UN International Court of Justice to take a number of measures against Armenia. He noted that Armenia “must take all necessary steps for the prompt, safe and effective clearance of landmines planted in Azerbaijani territories by the Armenian military and / or other groups under the leadership, controlled or sponsored by Yerevan, including by immediately providing comprehensive and accurate information on the location and characteristics of landmines on the territory of Azerbaijan”.
In conclusion, the representative of Azerbaijan added that his country “conducted negotiations with Armenia for a long time and appealed to the court only after Yerevan avoided negotiations”.
The decision of the International Court of Justice on both claims will be made later.
