Azerbaijan appeals to the International Court of Justice
According to reports from Al-Jazeera, Azerbaijan has asked the International Court of Justice of the United Nations to reject accusations of ethnic cleansing made by Armenia.
The two countries have been in dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh for three decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ICJ case, filed by Armenia in 2021, accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism, allowing hate speech against Armenians, and destroying Armenian cultural sites. In response, Baku has denied all allegations.
In this context, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination provides a clause allowing the International Court of Justice to resolve disputes if bilateral talks fail to mediate a solution.
Azerbaijan's representative, Elnur Mammadov, stated to the court that Armenia had failed to engage in negotiations with Azerbaijan in an attempt to resolve the issue, making the case premature.
The case stems from a 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh that resulted in over 6,600 deaths, with Azerbaijan launching an attack on the region. After several days of fighting, the country occupied the southern part of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, previously under Armenian control.
Following appeals from the UN and mediation by Russia, a ceasefire was declared between the two states in November 2020, with the establishment of a peacekeeping zone along the border, overseen by Russia as a guarantor.
However, in 2023, Azerbaijan again attacked the predominantly Armenian region and, after its victory, secured the surrender of the Republic of Artsakh, leading to the exodus of over 100,000 Armenians.
This action was labeled by the European Union as ethnic cleansing in the region by Azerbaijan. In fact, with a resolution on October 5, 2023, the European Parliament called for sanctions against Azerbaijani government officials who carried out the offensive, causing the displacement of thousands of people.
In December, the two parties agreed to initiate negotiations for a peace treaty. However, many residents of Armenia's border regions resisted the demarcation effort, seeing it as Azerbaijan's invasion into areas they consider their own.
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