Armenia asks ICJ to pursue ethnic cleansing case against Azerbaijan

Armenia urged on Tuesday the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hold Azerbaijan responsible for what it said was the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

"After threatening to do so for years, Azerbaijan has completed the ethnic cleansing of the region and is now systematically erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians' presence," Armenia's representative, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, said on the second day of hearings at the UN's top court.

The case is part of the fallout from decades of confrontation between the South Caucasus neighbors, most explosively over the disputed region in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's armed forces recaptured the mountainous region in September after years of ethnic Armenian control, prompting most ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.

In a case first filed at the ICJ in 2021, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of glorifying racism against Armenians, allowing hate speech against Armenians and destroying Armenian cultural sites.

Armenia said that put Azerbaijan in violation of a UN anti-discrimination treaty. Baku denies all the accusations against it.

On Monday, Azerbaijan told the court that most of Armenia's complaints related to the armed conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh and did not fall within the scope of the UN treaty.

It also accused Armenia of not genuinely engaging in negotiations before bringing the case to the ICJ, also known as the World Court. Kirakosyan rejected these claims. 


Reuters