Armenia has requested this Monday an «urgent intervention» to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for the blockade that Azerbaijan is allegedly exercising on the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
«We come before you today to request your urgent intervention to put an end to a humanitarian catastrophe,» said lawyer Lawrence Martin, Armenia’s representative to the ICJ.
«Since December 12 last year the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh has been virtually cut off from the outside world. They have been denied access to food, medicine and other necessities,» Martin said, according to the Armenian press. The Armenian representative thus assures that «if there is no quick action by the Court, their lives will be in danger».
Martin pointed out that tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians were forced to leave their homes as a result of the 44-day war in 2020 during which Azerbaijan took control of several districts of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Following the deployment of a Russian peacekeeping force, Azerbaijan has continued to make life «impossible» for Armenians in the region and attacked villages in breach of the ceasefire, forcing the inhabitants of Paruj, Berdzor, Aghavno and Sus to flee, according to Martin.
Martin has quoted Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev as saying that «our main duty is to expel Armenians from our lands.» «This is the man who calls Armenians, dogs, savages and barbarians,» he noted.
Specifically, Armenia has denounced the Azeri blockade of the Lachin Corridor that connects Armenia’s territory with the Nagorno-Karabakh area still controlled by Armenia by «alleged environmental activists» who are allegedly linked to Azerbaijani-funded NGOs.
«Azerbaijan should stop orchestrating and supporting this alleged protest that prevents free movement through the Lachin Corridor in both directions» and resume the supply of natural gas and other public services to Nagorno-Karabakh, Martin has remonstrated.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire after the 2020 war and in early October agreed to commit to the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration, through which both countries recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The two countries have been involved in several clashes in recent years over the control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory with a majority Armenian population that has been the focus of conflict since it decided to secede in 1988 from Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
