Azerbaijani servicemen guard the Lachin checkpoint on the in Azerbaijan. File
| Photo Credit: AP
Armenia accused Azerbaijan on the UN prime court docket of getting “completed ethnic cleansing” within the former breakaway area of Nagorno-Karabakh, claims dismissed as “cherry picking” by its bitter rival Baku.
The two international locations are embroiled in a long-running authorized conflict on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), simply as army tensions are once more ramping up following final 12 months’s battle within the disputed mountainous space.
A world away from the combating, robed legal professionals within the gilded halls of the Peace Palace in The Hague are battling over whether or not the ICJ has jurisdiction in tit-for-tat instances introduced by each side.
Azerbaijan has been violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) “for decades,” Armenia’s ICJ consultant Yeghishe Kirakosyan informed AFP.
Kirakosyan added: “Azerbaijan has been espousing policies and practices of racial hatred towards ethnic Armenians which have actually led to escalation and to war and the atrocities committed during the war.”
“After threatening to do so for years, Azerbaijan has completed the ethnic cleansing of the region,” Kirakosyan, representing the Armenian authorities, informed judges in testimony earlier Tuesday.
Baku was “now consolidating it by systematically erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians’ presence including Armenian cultural and religious heritage,” he mentioned.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars, within the early Nineties and in 2020, earlier than Azerbaijani forces final September retook full management of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive that ended three many years of Armenian separatist rule over the enclave.
Tensions have remained excessive for the reason that Azerbaijani operation that triggered the exodus to Armenia of a lot of the enclave’s whole ethnic-Armenian inhabitants of greater than 100,000 folks.
‘Durable peace’
Baku has vigorously denied allegations of “ethnic cleansing”, saying Armenians have been free to return so long as they agreed to stay beneath Azerbaijani rule.
Elnur Mammadov, Baku’s agent on the court docket, informed AFP that Armenia was “abusing” the ICJ to wage what he known as a “public media campaign against Azerbaijan.”
“We believe this court is being abused by Armenia… without having any genuine attempt to resolve these disputes at the negotiating table, which would be and is the preference of Azerbaijan,” he informed AFP.
Mammadov urged the ICJ to throw out the case, arguing that what Armenia is alleging in opposition to Azerbaijan doesn’t fall beneath the CERD and due to this fact the court docket has no jurisdiction.
“The problem with the evidence presented today (by Armenia)… They were cherry picked. They ignored the context,” he mentioned.
The ICJ, which guidelines in disputes between states, issued emergency orders in December 2021, calling on each events to stop incitement and promotion of racial hatred.
But whereas the ICJ’s orders are binding, it has no enforcement mechanism and tensions grew, culminating in Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive final September.
Both Mammadov and Kirakosyan mentioned they believed peace was potential between the 2 rivals.
“The ultimate goal is peace, a durable peace,” Kirakosyan informed AFP.
“And the more immediate goal, mid-term goal, is the right to return for the ethnic Armenians that have suffered throughout the decades,” he added.
Mammadov mentioned that peace was “absolutely” achievable.
“We believe it’s time for peace,” he mentioned.
“But in the meantime, we do continue with these proceedings in order to have the proper assessment of the past events, of the past crimes committed against Azerbaijan.”
The proceedings proceed for 2 weeks.
Source: www.thehindu.com
