No question of withdrawing from “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” international lawsuits on the agenda of the Republic of Armenia: Naira Zohrabyan shares false information

The Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters assures that there is no question of withdrawing from the “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” international lawsuits on the agenda of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, thus denying the statements claiming the opposite.

On September 2, the day of independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, Naira Zohrabyan announced that all the “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” criminal cases in the international courts have been “frozen”. “All the court cases initiated against Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice for war crimes related to ethnic cleansing, prisoners of war, all those judicial processes are frozen, because Article 10 of the package Aliyev sent regarding the peace treaty states that Armenia shall withdraw from all the lawsuits initiated against Azerbaijan in international courts,” Zohrabyan stated.

The Fact Investigation Platform/Fip.am sent an inquiry to the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters to see at what stage is the examination of the “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” cases at the International Court of Justice filed based on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

In response, the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters informed: “After hearings on the preliminary objections regarding the jurisdiction of the court held on April 15-19, 2024 in the case “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” examined at the International Court of Justice based on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Court will make a decision in accordance with Rules of Court. After the court has made a decision on its jurisdiction, it will begin the examination of the merits of the case in accordance with Article 99 of Rules of Court.”

Article 99 of Rules of Court of the International Court of Justice sets out the procedure for the revision of the judgment, according to which, before the Court gives its judgement on the admissibility of the application, the parties may be given an additional opportunity of presenting their views. And if the Court finds that the application is admissible, it shall fix time-limits for further proceedings on the merits of the application.

In its inquiry, Fip.am noted that the opposition claims that all criminal proceedings against Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice have been “frozen”, and asked whether the Armenian side is going to withdraw from the international criminal lawsuits filed against Azerbaijan.

The response of the Office was as follows: “We hereby inform that the question of withdrawing from the “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” lawsuits currently being examined in international courts is not on the agenda of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.”

Hasmik Hambardzumyan