Azerbaijan is working for international courts to investigate Armenia's occupation of the disputed Karabakh region and the crimes it's committed there in that period, the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov said Wednesday.
"Azerbaijan has filed several lawsuits at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Armenia to be held accountable for the various crimes it committed in Karabakh, which is sovereign Azerbaijani territory, after the Second Karabakh War," Mammadov told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Armenia and Azerbaijan have each sought rulings at the ICJ, also known as the World Court, against the other over the fallout of conflicts dating to the breakup of the Soviet Union, mainly over Karabakh.
Tensions over Karabakh erupted into a 2020 war that left more than 6,600 people dead in the region, which is within Azerbaijan but had been under the illegal occupation of ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Baku's forces liberated the mountainous region in September, prompting most of its 120,000 residents to flee to Armenia.
Armenia first filed the discrimination claim in the ICJ two years before that, in 2021, accusing Azerbaijan of breaching the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
The case accused Azerbaijan of allegedly glorifying racism against Armenians, allowing hate speech against Armenians and destroying Armenian cultural sites – all accusations that Baku denies.
Azerbaijan subsequently filed a claim against Armenia, accusing it of discrimination and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis and breaching the same treaty.
At last week's hearings, the sides presented their cases and objections to the court, where Azerbaijan also accused Armenia of not genuinely engaging in negotiations before bringing the case to court. CERD has a clause allowing disputes to be resolved by the World Court if bilateral negotiations fail to broker a settlement.
"Armenia's application misuses the (treaty) and tries to escape its obligation to attempt settlement of its dispute with Azerbaijan by way of negotiation before invoking the court's jurisdiction," Mammadov said.
Azerbaijan also argued that most allegations in Armenia's case fall outside the scope of the discrimination convention, meaning the court did not have jurisdiction.
The court heard the second round of objections from Armenia regarding the court's jurisdiction earlier this week.
Armenia asked the ICJ to throw out the case brought by Azerbaijan on technical grounds, following a request a week earlier by Azerbaijan to dismiss the case brought by Armenia. The hearings are to conclude on Friday, but final rulings in either case could be years away, and the court has no way to enforce its rulings.
Azerbaijan is suing Armenia on the grounds that it implemented policies of "genocide and ethnic cleansing" against Azerbaijanis, Mammadov told AA.
"They had plans to ensure only Armenians live in these lands and never again another Azerbaijani."
Baku aims to ensure Armenia is made to pay compensation for its violations in Karabakh and fulfill its obligations during the return of Azerbaijani citizens to the region, who were displaced after the Second Karabakh War, he said.
Maps of mines
"We have also conveyed to the court that the landmines Armenia has planted in Karabakh are an element of its ethnic cleansing policy toward Azerbaijanis."
Nearly 352 Azerbaijani citizens were injured due to landmines planted after the Second Karabakh War during Armenian occupation, according to the minister.
In the past four years, Azerbaijan numerous times accused Armenia of providing inaccurate and incomplete minefield maps.
"They only admitted they had the correct maps after international pressure," Mammadov said. The maps they submitted were only 25% accurate, which is useless for us and a sign of hatred toward Azerbaijanis."
Baku's case at the ICJ includes the minefield map issue, as well, which overall accuses Armenia of violating CERD on four accounts: ethnic cleansing, destroying culture, environmental attacks, hate speech and disinformation.
Armenia implemented these policies from 1987 to 2020 to achieve a state consisting of only people of Armenian ethnicity, expelled nearly 1 million Azerbaijanis living in occupied territories and destroyed Azerbaijani cities and cultural heritage, Azerbaijan's declaration reads.
Marking borders
The 2020 conflict ended with a Russia-brokered cease-fire agreement that granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Karabakh as well as some adjacent territories under illegal Armenian occupation.
Since December, the sides have been struggling to begin negotiations on a peace treaty, key parts for which were demarcating borders and establishing regional transport corridors through each other's territory.
In a historic breakthrough, the neighbors announced Tuesday they had started delimitating their border, where there is a constant threat of a fresh flare-up.
Azerbaijan said expert groups are conducting "clarification of coordinates based on a geodesic study of the terrain," while Armenia ruled out "the transfer of any parts of Armenia's sovereign territory" to Baku as a result of the delimitation.
The four abandoned settlements that are to be returned to Azerbaijan, Lower Askipara, Baghanis Ayrum, Kheirimly and Gizilhajili, were taken over by Armenian forces in the 1990s, forcing their ethnic Azerbaijani residents to flee.
The area has strategic importance for landlocked Armenia. Several small sections of the highway to Georgia, vital for the country's foreign trade, could end up in the territory to be handed back to Azerbaijan. The delimited border will also run close to a major Russian gas pipeline, and the area has advantageous military positions.
Pashinyan has insisted on resolving remaining border disputes with Azerbaijan "to avoid a new war."
He said Russian border guards, deployed in the area since 1992, will be replaced by Armenian servicemen and Azerbaijan will be "cooperating to guard the state border on their own."