Public hearings in the case of Armenia vs. Azerbaijan opened at the United Nations International Court of Justice on April 15, with judges hearing objections from the Azerbaijani side on the first day of the proceedings scheduled to last through Friday.
The legal battle at the Hague-based court dates from September 2021 when both sides filed tit-for-tat suits against each other within a week. Both sides accused the other of “ethnic cleansing” and of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Public hearings on Azerbaijan’s claim against Armenia are scheduled to take place on April 22-26.
In presenting his country’s objections today, Azerbaijan’s representative, Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov dwelled in his speech on the “consequences” preceding and following the 2020 war, arguing that Armenia failed to negotiate with Azerbaijan in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
As part of its case Armenia has submitted a number of claims indicating “policy of promoting hatred” that Armenia insists Azerbaijan has carried out for “decades.”
However, according to Azerbaijan’s representative, Armenia’s appeal to the international court should be rejected, as these issues “are not within the jurisdiction of the court.”
“Azerbaijan in no way accepts the alleged violations of international humanitarian law and other international human rights laws,” Mammadov said.
He added, however, that Baku takes such accusations very seriously. “The available data show that, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan does not avoid convicting its citizens in corresponding cases when the charge is proven during trial,” Mammadov said.
Yeghishe Kirakosian, Armenia’s representative for international legal issues, will present his case on Tuesday.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian last month did not rule out that Armenia and Azerbaijan may agree to mutually withdraw international legal claims against each other. He said that the issue could be part of the ongoing peace process and would fit the logic of a peace that both neighbors say they strive to achieve.
Liparit Drmeyan, head of the office of Armenia’s representative on international legal issues, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service earlier that they had no information regarding the possibility of withdrawing lawsuits and that the Armenian side continued to work on them.
Apart from the Hague Court, Armenia has also submitted four interstate complaints against Azerbaijan to the European Court.
The first interstate complaint concerns the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and violations that followed it. The second complaint refers to what Yerevan views as illegal trials of Armenians captured by Azerbaijan at different stages of the conflict. The third complaint refers to the presence of Azerbaijani armed units in the sovereign territory of Armenia and the resulting human rights violations, and the fourth complaint refers to all violations that occurred in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, including the displacement of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in September 2023.
