THE HAGUE (Public Radio of Armenia\/Panorama.am) \u2014 Armenia on April 16 urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hold Azerbaijan responsible for ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter threatening to do so for years, Azerbaijan has completed the ethnic cleansing of the region and is now systematically erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians\u2019 presence,\u201d Armenia\u2019s representative, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, said on the second day of hearings at the UN\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no better example of racial discrimination, upsetting peace and security than Azerbaijan\u2019s recent armed aggressions. which resulted in ethnic cleansing of all of Nagorno Karabakh,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo the great regret of Armenia and the international community, not even this Court was able to stop Azerbaijan\u2019s race of ethnic cleansing. In September 2023, after starving the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh for nine months by blocking the Lachin corridor, in fragrance violation of the Court\u2019s two orders on provisional measures, Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked attack killing hundreds and forcing over 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee their ancestral homes,\u201d Kirakosyan stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, April 15, Azerbaijan told the court that most of Armenia\u2019s complaints related to the armed conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh did not fall within the scope of the UN treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also accused Armenia of not genuinely engaging in negotiations before bringing the case to the ICJ. Kirakosyan rejected these claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cArmenia negotiated with Azerbaijan in good faith and pursued discussions far beyond the point of utility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cArmenia has no claims on Azerbaijani territory and is committed to establishing conditions for genuine and enduring peace,\u201d Kirakosyan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHistory has taught us that genuine peace is built on justice, accountability, truth and reconciliation,\u201d Armenia\u2019s representative stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n International law professor Pierre d\u2019Argent representing Armenia on April 16 responded to the preliminary objections raised by Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAzerbaijan\u2019s second preliminary objection seeks to exclude from the debate on the merits only certain allegations of violation of the Convention made by Armenia, namely allegations of arbitrary detentions of ethnic Armenians, allegations of enforced disappearances of ethnic Armenians, lastly, Armenia\u2019s claims relating to various acts of violence committed against ethnic Armenians,\u201d d\u2019Argent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs you know, Azerbaijan\u2019s position has apparently changed in the course of the proceedings. The question is, however, whether it has really evolved, as it is difficult to know what has changed. The distinctions Azerbaijan is making are irrelevant and meaningless under the Convention, and all the more so because there is no doubt that the conflict between Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenians when they lived in Nagorno-Karabakh had very marked ethnic origins and dimensions. Azerbaijan yesterday acknowledged that the conflict before the Court is an \u201cethnic conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He continued, \u201cThus, this conflict is not an ordinary inter-state war, contrary to what, in a perfectly contradictory and decontextualised manner, Azerbaijan is trying to convince you by claiming that within this conflict there are particularly cruel and shocking acts of violence which have nothing to do with the ethnic origin of their victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis conflict is an ethnic conflict because for three decades, under the pretext of territorial integrity, Azerbaijan refused to accept the self-determination of the Armenians living on their ancestral lands in Nagorno-Karabakh. This conflict was-and still is-ethnically motivated and discriminatory, just as Azerbaijan\u2019s decision to put an end to this self-determination through its military operations in 2020 and, ultimately, in September 2023, was ethnically motivated and discriminatory. What Azerbaijan, through the voice of its President, calls its \u2018war of liberation,\u2019 or its \u2018patriotic war,\u2019 involved numerous discriminatory violations of the fundamental rights of ethnic Armenians, including when they took part in the hostilities. Moreover, this war resulted in the complete ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh in defiance of the court\u2019s orders, which were intended to protect plausible Convention rights that were under serious threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAccording to its own national narrative, Azerbaijan thus \u2018liberated\u2019 itself by waging war at the end of 2020, and then \u2014 after a complete ceasefire \u2014 by pursuing its objectives through the gradual strangulation of Nagorno-Karabakh, right up to the final coup de force in September 2023 by which the ethnic Armenian inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh were driven out. Thus, for Azerbaijan, its \u2018liberation\u2019 involved the rejection of any autonomy for ethnic Armenians and, ultimately, their forced exclusion from their ancestral lands, which is consolidated by the denial, destruction or alteration of any trace of the centuries-old Armenian presence in this territory. This, ladies and gentlemen of the court, is the objective and the fruit of Azerbaijan\u2019s \u2018patriotic war:\u2019 a homeland without ethnic Armenians,\u201d the law professor remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/YeghisheKirakosyan@ICJ-20240416-180-01-1024x683.jpg\")
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