Author: Greg Madatian

Nagorno-Karabakh’s President, Arayik Harutyunyan, said on Monday that Azerbaijan had threatened ‘tougher and more drastic steps’ if Nagorno-Karabakh did not agree to integration with Azerbaijan. 

This comes as Nagorno-Karabakh approaches the end of its third month under blockade, after Azerbaijani protesters obstructed the Lachin Corridor in December. 

Over the past months, the region’s electricity and gas supply, which passes through Azerbaijan-controlled territories, has also been repeatedly disrupted. 

Speaking at Monday’s meeting of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Security Council, Harutyunyan said that they had refused Baku’s demands for the region to ‘integrate’ with Azerbaijan. 

Azerbaijan considers Nagorno-Karabakh to be territory of Azerbaijan temporarily under the control of Russian peacekeeping forces, while Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh claim that Azerbaijan is attempting to effect a ‘genocide’ of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population.  

‘We did not accept [and] do not accept, and today I want to state again that it is not only a decision of the Security Council, but the overwhelming majority of our people accept that we will not deviate from our right to independence and self-determination’, said Harutyunyan. ‘And that means that in the near future, we will have various developments, situations that we will have to face.’

The Security Council meeting came a day after the death of three Nagorno-Karabakh police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Azerbaijani authorities claimed to have received information that a vehicle was transporting ammunition from Armenia, and stated that the police officers on board opened fire in response to demands to stop for inspection. Stepanakert maintains that the minibus that came under fire was on a regular police patrol. 

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said another ‘convoy’ along the road had been spotted, this time escorted by Russian peacekeepers. They called this is ‘unacceptable’ and a ‘gross violation’ of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.

Following the incident, the Azerbaijani authorities repeated their demand that Azerbaijani checkpoints be installed on the Lachin Corridor, which connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Both Yerevan and Stepanakert have repeatedly and firmly rejected such offers. 

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson told RFE/RL that Armenia’s position on the matter of checkpoints had not changed since last week’s attack, which Yerevan described as an act of terrorism. 

In a visit to Baku in late February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that establishing checkpoints on the corridor, which according to the 2020 ceasefire agreement should be controlled by Russian peacekeepers, was ‘not envisaged’. 

‘But it is possible to dispel, by technical means, suspicions that the corridor is not functioning as intended’, added the minister. 

The announcement also followed two meetings between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in late February and early March, the only such meetings to have taken place since the region’s blockade began on 12 December. 

President Harutyunyan said that Azerbaijan had expressed its ultimatum through ‘its channels’ following the meetings, stating that there would be ‘no solution to the current issues’ if Stepanakert did not agree to integration. 

The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities stated that the meetings did not concern the region’s political status, instead focusing on ‘technical issues’: the opening of the Lachin Corridor, restoration of the electricity supply from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, restoration of the region’s gas supply, and resuming mining operations in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Harutyunyan noted that during the second meeting, an Azerbaijani representative had raised the issue of integration, but was met with objection from his Nagorno-Karabakh counterparts. 

‘We have two options: either we have to continue the struggle, or if there are people in the public who think that the proposal put forward by Azerbaijan should be accepted, people can speak about their civil rights. They have the right to say that we have not chosen the right path, to formalise their statements, and to establish a new government in the country’, Harutyunyan said.

The spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Aykhan Hajizadeh, told Meydan TV that Azerbaijan ‘did not threaten the Armenian community living in Nagorno-Karabakh’. 

On Monday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry also stated that ‘Armenian troops should be completely withdrawn from the territory of Azerbaijan’ and repeated accusations that Armenia was laying mines in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

No Armenian troops are officially stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the UN’s International Court of Justice in February rejected a request from Baku to order Armenia to stop planting landmines in ‘areas to which Azerbaijani civilians will return in Azerbaijan’s territory’. 

The statement continued by saying that, if the demands stated were not met, Azerbaijan would be ‘forced to take absolutely necessary measures using all possibilities to disarm and neutralise illegal armed forces’. 

https://oc-media.org/nagorno-karabakh-claims-azerbaijan-offered-integration-or-tougher-measures/

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — The United Nations’ highest court ordered Azerbaijan on Wednesday to ensure free movement along the only highway between the Armenian border and a majority ethnically Armenian region inside Azerbaijan. 

The International Court of Justice ruled on a number of requests from the Caucasus neighbors in a pair of cases where each accuses the other of violating a decadesold treaty forbidding racial discrimination, granting one of Armenia’s protection measures while dismissing those of Azerbaijan. 

“There is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused before the court makes a final decision in the case,” the court’s president, Judge Joan Donoghue, said in reading out the ruling. 

Following a bloody 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, the pair complained to The Hague-based court that the other is guilty of violating the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, or CERD, which requires signatories to take steps to end racial discrimination and promote of understanding between differing nationalities, races and ethnic groups. 

Last year, both countries asked the court to intervene for the second time while the underlying case is being considered. During hearings in January, Armenia asked the court to guarantee access to the Lachin corridor, the only road between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, as well as restore the flow of natural gas. 

Nagorno-Karabakh, a 1,700-square-mile area that technically falls within the borders of Azerbaijan but is overwhelmingly ethnically Armenian, has been a source of friction since the fall of the Soviet Union. 

In its first ruling Wednesday, the court ordered Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to allow the free movement of people and cargo along the corridor, finding there was evidence that blockades had caused “shortages of food, medicine and other life-saving medical supplies.” 

However, the 15-judge panel said two other requests from Armenia – one asking for Azerbaijan to end demonstrations along the road and the other to ensure the supply of gas – failed to meet the standard for provisional measures. The court wrote Armenia had “not placed before it sufficient evidence” for its claims. 

In its own case, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of engaging in ethnic cleansing by planting explosive devices in the region and refusing to hand over maps indicating where mines have been placed.

However, in its second ruling of the day, the court found that these allegations also did not meet the threshold under the CERD. In that case, a 16-judge panel said that Azerbaijan had failed to prove Armenian was using mines to target civilians based on their nationality. The court ruled identically on a similar request made by Baku earlier in the proceedings. 

The pair both first appealed to The Hague-based court in 2021. Hearings were held in the first requests they made for provisional measures – essentially an injunction – the same year.  Armenia argued Azerbaijan was intentionally exacerbating existing tensions by erecting a war memorial using the helmets of dead Armenian soldiers, while Azerbaijan claimed the Armenian military had seeded the ground with landmines, leaving the area dangerous and impassable. 

In December 2021, the court ordered Azerbaijan to ensure the safety of soldiers captured in the conflict, prevent incitement of racial hatred and protect Armenian cultural heritage sites, while telling Armenia to avoid doing anything to exacerbate the conflict. Both sets of earlier measures continue to stand, the court reiterated Wednesday.

The Council of Europe, the oversight body of the European Court of Human Rights, has also weighed in, ordering Azerbaijan to open the Lachin corridor last month. The countries have a different case pending before the rights court, which protects the civil and political rights of Europeans, stemming from the same conflict. 

The European Union has officially launched a monitoring mission in Armenia to ensure stability in areas bordering Azerbaijan. It has a staff of 100, with 50 unarmed observers on the ground.

Armenia’s strategic ally Russia, whose relations with the West are at a nadir due to its invasion of Ukraine, resents what it calls a “clear geopolitical move.”

The objectives of the mission are “to contribute to stability in the border areas of Armenia, build confidence and human security in conflict-affected areas, and ensure an environment conducive to the normalization efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan supported by the EU.”

EU monitoring was first proposed after the escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in mid-September, which led to more than 300 deaths on both sides.

A previous, limited, iteration of the EU mission consisted of 40 monitors and operated for a term of two months, from October 20 to December 19, 2022.

The longer-term mission was announced on January 23. It drew an angry reaction from Russia, which went so far as to allude to a possible confrontation between the unarmed EU observers in Armenia and Russia’s peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The EU mission’s operational headquarters will be in Yeghegnadzor, in south-eastern Armenia, near the resort town of Jermuk, which was attacked by Azerbaijani drones and missiles during the escalation in September.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed hope that the mission would help strengthen peace and stability at a February 21 meeting with Civilian Operations Commander Stefano Tomat and Head of Mission Markus Ritter.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell welcomed the news in a tweet on the same day. “We launched the EU Mission in Armenia #EUMA, which is now operational and conducted its first patrol today. #EUMA will contribute to human security, build confidence on the ground and support EU efforts in the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Borrell wrote.

Despite EU and Armenian assurances that the mission is not directed “against” anyone, the news of the official launch drew further angry reaction from Moscow. “This is not the first time we have seen the European Union and the West as a whole seeking to gain a foothold in our ally Armenia by whatever means. We see in these attempts an exclusively geopolitical background, far from the interests of a real normalization of relations in the Transcaucasus,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on February 20.

Later, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar by phone that Moscow views the mission as a bid to “squeeze Russia out of the region and weaken its historical role as the main guarantor of security.”

Another of Russia’s objections is that it “ignores” Baku’s negative position towards the mission’s deployment.

Arsen Kharatyan, a former advisor to Prime Minister Pashinyan, said the mission was a great opportunity for Armenia. “Official Yerevan must make every effort to ensure the successful work of the mission. This is a serious opportunity to improve the security situation in our country, it would be unforgivable to miss it,” Kharatyan wrote on his Facebook page.