Azerbaijan requested today that the International Court of Justice (IC) of the United Nations initiate the case on the accusations that Armenia has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing, Reuters reported.
The two countries filed cases against each other in the IC, accusing each other of ethnic cleansing.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have sought ICJ rulings against each other over the effects of conflicts dating back to the collapse of the Soviet Union, most notably over Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan that was once home to many Armenians.
Ethnic Armenians won a war in the 1990s that saw hundreds of thousands of Azeris flee their homes in and around Karabakh. The situation has largely reversed since 2020, when Azerbaijan regained control of Karabakh with military victories, and thousands of Armenians fled the region.
Yesterday, Armenia asked the ICJ to dismiss on technical grounds the case filed by Azerbaijan, following a request a week earlier by Azerbaijan to dismiss the case filed by Armenia. A final decision in both cases could be years away, and the court has no way to enforce them.
Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mamadov told the judges today that Armenia’s objections to the court’s jurisdiction should be rejected.
Armenia first filed a case at the International Court of Justice in 2021, accusing Azerbaijan of glorifying racism against Armenians, allowing hate speech against them, and destroying Armenian cultural sites in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Azerbaijan, in turn, filed a lawsuit against Yerevan a week later, accusing Armenia of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing from the early 1990s to 2020.
Each side denies the other’s accusations.
The hearings, for now, only cover legal issues under the jurisdiction of the ICJ and will not deal with the merits of the claims of discrimination.
Tags: Azerbaijan asked International Court Justice initiate case Armenia discrimination
