The case accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism and permitting hate speech towards 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.
Legal professionals for Azerbaijan argued on Monday that the case doesn’t meet the circumstances of the United Nations anti-discrimination treaty on which it’s based mostly. In addition they claimed that the ICJ doesn’t have the jurisdiction to rule on the problems contained within the grievance.
The 2 Caucasian nations have been contesting the Nagorno-Karabakh territory throughout the three many years for the reason that Soviet Union collapsed. Yerevan has sought to convey worldwide consideration to the mountainous enclave since Baku took management in a army operation in September.
The ICJ case, filed by Armenia in 2021, accuses Azerbaijan of glorifying racism towards and permitting hate speech towards Armenians and destroying Armenian cultural websites. Baku has denied all of the claims.
The case stems from a 2020 conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh that left greater than 6,600 individuals 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 court docket that Armenia had did not “interact in negotiations with Azerbaijan in an try and 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 court docket … and utilizing the very fact of those proceedings to wage a public media marketing campaign towards 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 mainly is the tip of Armenia’s software”.
Azerbaijan additionally asserted that many of the allegations in Armenia’s case fall exterior the scope of the discrimination conference, which means the court docket doesn’t have jurisdiction.
Armenia is scheduled to reply on Tuesday to Azerbaijan’s arguments.
Azerbaijan additionally has a case towards Armenia lodged with the court docket, 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 army 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. Nonetheless, many residents of Armenia’s border areas have resisted the demarcation effort, seeing it as Azerbaijan encroaching on areas they take into account their very own.
