This is a Cynical Strategy: Its Tactics Must Fail, Kirakosyan

The oral hearings continue in the case of Armenia against Azerbaijan regarding the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination at the International Court of Justice. The representative of Armenia on international legal matters, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, stated that there exists an environment in Azerbaijan where murderers wielding axes are rewarded and glorified as national heroes for killing Armenians in peacetime.

“This long-term policy of racial discrimination reached its peak in September 2020 when Azerbaijan launched a war against the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. The declared aim was the expulsion of ethnic Armenians from their homeland. For 44 days, Azerbaijani soldiers killed and tortured ethnic Armenians, proudly documenting unimaginable acts of violence against ethnic Armenian civilians and prisoners of war,” Kirakosyan noted.

He pointed out that even the International Court of Justice was unable to halt Azerbaijan’s racial campaign, which involved ethnic cleansing. “Azerbaijan systematically erases all traces of the presence of ethnic Armenians, including Armenian cultural and religious heritage,” Kirakosyan stated.

The Armenian representative in international legal matters indicated that Azerbaijan has made desperate attempts to create a false sense of equality between the parties by initiating a case against Armenia. “Azerbaijan has no videos, examples of racial atrocities that it can present to support its claims, nor does it have any possibilities to quote the statements made by its officials,” he said. “What has Azerbaijan done? It has resurrected its historical grievances of three decades, which clearly fall outside the temporal jurisdiction of the court. Azerbaijan is making a desperate attempt to convince the court that Armenia's claims should face obstacles of jurisdiction; however, nothing can be further from the truth. Azerbaijan simply hopes that a jumble of objections will overturn the opposing party’s arguments. This is a cynical strategy. Armenia will demonstrate that none of Azerbaijan's objections withstand even preliminary scrutiny or any challenge. Its tactics must fail,” declared Yeghishe Kirakosyan.