Rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan clash Thursday at the UN's top court, with Yerevan asking judges to force Baku to withdraw troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and allow displaced ethnic Armenians to return safely to the breakaway region.
The hearings at the International Court of Justice come only weeks after Azerbaijan's lightning offensive to take control of the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time in three decades.
The one-day operation sparked a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians, with the vast majority of the estimated 120,000 who had been living in the territory fleeing into Armenia.
The separatist Karabakh authorities announced that the self-proclaimed republic will be dissolved on January 1, 2024.
Armenia has petitioned the ICJ to order Azerbaijan to "withdraw all military and law-enforcement personnel from all civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh."
It also called on the court to ensure Azerbaijan "refrain from taking any actions… having the effect of displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians… or preventing the safe and expeditious return" of refugees.
The ICJ rules on disputes between states but while its decisions are legally binding, it has no power to enforce them.
Thursday's hearings at the iconic Peace Palace in The Hague are the latest in a long-running legal battle between the two rivals.
Each country has accused the other of breaching a UN treaty, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
After September's military operation, Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of conducting a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" to clear Nagorno-Karabakh of its Armenian population.
But Baku strongly denies the claim and has publicly called on Armenian residents of the territory to stay and "reintegrate" into Azerbaijan.
The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh was populated mainly by Armenians and has been part of Azerbaijan since the fall of the Russian Empire.
It unilaterally proclaimed its independence with the support of Armenia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
In the wake of the operation, Armenian lawmakers approved a key step in joining another international court based in The Hague — the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This infuriated its traditional ally Russia because the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on allegations of abducting Ukrainian children during Moscow's invasion.
(AFP)
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20231012-armenia-and-azerbaijan-bring-fight-over-nagorno-karabakh-to-un-top-court