Yerevan [Armenia], October 13: Armenia has again called on the International Court of Justice to impose measures on Azerbaijan to protect ethnic Armenians who come from Nagorno-Karabakh.
The court should stop the "ethnic cleansing" of the South Caucasus region, a legal representative of Armenia told the court in The Hague on Thursday.
It is the third time Armenia has turned to the UN's highest judges in the long-running conflict.
Armenia initiated the urgent proceedings after the army of Azerbaijan forced the surrender of Armenian forces in the region on September 19. Since then, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled the region.
Armenia calls these forced relocations, but Azerbaijan's legal representatives argue that the people left Nagorno-Karabakh of their own free will.
A court ruling is expected in a few weeks. Judgments of the court are binding.
The court last ordered Azerbaijan in February to end the blockade of the access road to the enclave. The blockade stopped the people living there from being supplied with food and medicine, and Armenia claimed at the time that patients could not be transported to hospitals. This "cynical practice of ethnic cleansing has now become reality," Armenia's legal representative, YeghisheKirakosyan, told the court.
Back in December 2021, the UN judges had ordered both states not to aggravate the conflict and not to put people in danger.
Source: Qatar Tribune