Hague: The Azerbaijan government has requested that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismiss an ethnic cleansing suit brought by Armenia. Attorneys for Azerbaijan contended that the lawsuit did not comply with the United Nations anti-discrimination treaty. Additionally, they asserted that the ICJ lacks jurisdiction to rule on objections.
In the three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed, the two Caucasus countries contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Since Baku took control of the mountainous enclave in September, Yerevan sought international attention for the region.
Azerbaijan is blamed by Armenia, in a lawsuit filed with the International Court of Justice in 2021, for promoting racism and authorising hate speech against Armenians, as well as wrecking Armenian cultural sites. The administration of Baku renounced all allegations.
In 2020, the two sides fought a full-scale war over Nagorno-Karabakh that left more than 6,600 people deceased. This is the third full-scale dispute the duo clashed over the territory. There is a clause in the UN convention to eradicate racial intolerance that authorises quarrels to be brought before the ICJ if bilateral negotiations fail to resolve them.
According to Elnur Mammadov, the spokesperson of Azerbaijan, Armenia failed to ‘engage in negotiations with Azerbaijan in an attempt to settle’ the problem, causing the suit ‘premature.’ Mammadov emphasised that Yerevan was committed to a limited number of negotiations, but failed to seek them.
“From the outset, Armenia had its sights firmly set on commencing these proceedings before the court and using the fact of these proceedings to wage a public media campaign against Azerbaijan,” the Azerbaijan spokesperson added. The same convention is also the subject of Azerbaijan’s complaint against Armenia. There will be a hearing on Armenia’s objections later this month.
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