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    Categories: 2021

Hague court announces dates for considering petition for Armenian captives’ return, urgent measures against Azerbaijan

News.am, Armenia
Oct 8 2021

This is the first time that Armenia has filed a lawsuit with the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The representative of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Yeghishe Kirakosyan, who will represent Armenia's interests in this case at the ICJ, on Friday told about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The hearing at Armenia's request to take urgent measures against Azerbaijan will take place at ICJ on October 14 and 15. Armenia asks the court to apply a number of urgent measures against Azerbaijan, including the return of all Armenian prisoners of war and detained civilians, and the closure of the "military trophy park" in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

According to Kirakosyan, this lawsuit is an unprecedented step taken by Armenia. He said that the phase of ICJ examining this urgent measure will be followed by the phase of examining the lawsuit itself.

"The consideration of the actual case will take years. But there is an expectation that the decision on the matter of applying urgent measures will be made in one to 1.5 months," he added.

As per Yeghishe Kirakosyan, the respective submitted evidence is convincing.

"Just the fact that we already have an international legal process at the UN International Court of Justice, where Armenia very clearly presents its demands and legal grounds, I believe, will have in itself a quite significant impact on the formation of international public opinion, the right international public atmosphere," he noted.

Kirakosyan said that the evidence and claims in the lawsuit are extensive, and they refer to gross violations of the convention.

"And for this purpose, in addition to the main claim, Armenia has also submitted a demand to apply urgent or conditional measures. The hearings on that are scheduled for October 14 and 15, a group has been set up to attend it, which also includes well-known international experts who will help represent Armenia's interests," Armenia’s representative before the ECtHR added.

Sonya Jalatian: