International Court of Justice judges on Friday ordered Azerbaijan to allow ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh in September to return, and to ensure the safety of Armenians remaining in the enclave as part of a set of emergency measures, UNN reports citing Reuters.
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In September, Azerbaijan regained the region, which was then controlled by the ethnic Armenian majority despite being internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
The lightning offensive, which came after decades of hostility between Baku and Yerevan and a nine-month blockade of major supplies by Baku, provoked a mass exodus of most of the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians to neighboring Armenia.
Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing and appealed to the International Court of Justice to take emergency measures aimed at protecting the rights of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Azerbaijan must (...) ensure that persons who left Nagorno-Karabakh after September 19, 2023, and wish to return to Nagorno-Karabakh can do so in a safe, unhindered and expeditious manner
The court said Azerbaijan must also make sure that all ethnic Armenians still living in the enclave are "free from the use of force or intimidation that might cause them to flee" and ordered Baku to report to the court in two months to show what it is doing to comply with the order.
Azerbaijan's response
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said it had already pledged to ensure the safety of all residents, regardless of national or ethnic origin, and that it had not forced ethnic Armenians to leave Karabakh.
"Azerbaijan is committed to protecting the human rights of the Armenian residents of Karabakh on an equal footing with other citizens of Azerbaijan," the statement said.
Addendum
The measures are part of two competing legal disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan before the International Court of Justice. Both states accuse each other of violating the UN anti-discrimination treaty.
The date of the main case has not yet been set and a final decision is not expected until next year.