Armenia has filed a lawsuit against Azerbaijan in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to a press release from The Hague published Sept. 29.
The request calls on the court to uphold the rights protected under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Armenia's suit asks the ICJ to impose new demands on Azerbaijan in addition to reinforcing its obligations under previous orders.
The new demands include the complete withdrawal of military and law enforcement personnel from civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh and the facilitation of humanitarian aid deliveries to ethnic Armenians in the region.
It also calls on Azerbaijan to "refrain from taking any actions directly or indirectly aimed at...displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh."
On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against the ethnically Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh. After a day of fighting, authorities in the capital of Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azerbaijani) agreed to accept a ceasefire on Sept. 20 mediated by Russia.
Yerevan denounced the offensive as part of a policy of "ethnic cleansing."
On Oct. 5, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet in Spain to hold talks along with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Council President Charles Michel.
Francis Farrell
