The case accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism and permitting hate speech in opposition to Armenians.
Azerbaijan has known as for the UN’s Worldwide Court docket of Justice to throw out a case accusing it of ethnic cleaning introduced by its neighbour and rival Armenia.
Attorneys for Azerbaijan argued on Monday that the case doesn’t meet the circumstances of the United Nations anti-discrimination treaty on which it’s primarily based. Additionally they claimed that the ICJ doesn’t have the jurisdiction to rule on the problems contained within the criticism.
The 2 Caucasian nations have been contesting the Nagorno-Karabakh territory through the three many years for the reason that Soviet Union collapsed. Yerevan has sought to carry worldwide consideration to the mountainous enclave since Baku took management in a navy operation in September.
The ICJ case, filed by Armenia in 2021, accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism in opposition to and permitting hate speech in opposition to Armenians and destroying Armenian cultural websites. Baku has denied all of the claims.
The case stems from a 2020 warfare over Nagorno-Karabakh that left greater than 6,600 folks lifeless, one in every of three full-scale conflicts that the pair have fought over the problem.
‘Untimely’
The UN conference on stamping out racial discrimination has a clause permitting disputes to be resolved by the ICJ ought to bilateral talks fail to dealer a settlement.
Azerbaijan’s consultant Elnur Mammadov claimed to the courtroom that Armenia had did not “have interaction in negotiations with Azerbaijan in an try to settle” the problem and that the lawsuit was due to this fact “untimely”.
There have been “restricted negotiations” however Yerevan “did not pursue them”, Mammadov mentioned. “From the outset, Armenia had its sights firmly set on commencing these proceedings earlier than the courtroom … and utilizing the very fact of those proceedings to wage a public media marketing campaign in opposition to Azerbaijan.”
Worldwide legislation professor Stefan Talmon, representing Azerbaijan, added that Armenia “by no means gave negotiations an opportunity”.
He argued that “with no negotiations and no real try at negotiations, that principally is the top of Armenia’s utility”.
Azerbaijan additionally asserted that a lot of the allegations in Armenia’s case fall outdoors the scope of the discrimination conference, that means the courtroom doesn’t have jurisdiction.
Armenia is scheduled to reply on Tuesday to Azerbaijan’s arguments.
Azerbaijan additionally has a case in opposition to Armenia lodged with the courtroom, alleging breaches of the identical conference. Objections filed by Armenia to that case can be heard later this month.
The 2020 battle ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire settlement that granted Azerbaijan management over components of Nagorno-Karabakh in addition to some adjoining territories.
Azerbaijan then waged a lightning navy marketing campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 that resulted within the overwhelming majority of the area’s 120,000 residents fleeing.
In December, the 2 sides agreed to start negotiations on a peace treaty. Nevertheless, many residents of Armenia’s border areas have resisted the demarcation effort, seeing it as Azerbaijan encroaching on areas they think about their very own.