Yerevan calls on international court to order Baku to withdraw troops from Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenia has asked the International Court of Justice to order Azerbaijan to withdraw all its troops from civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh and provide the United Nations access, the court said on Friday.

the International Court of Justice in February ordered Azerbaijan to ensure free movement through the Lachin corridor to and from the disputed region, in what then was an intermediate step in legal disputes with neighboring Armenia.

More than three quarters of the population of the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh crossed into Armenia as of Friday afternoon after a lightning military offensive by Azerbaijan last week.

In a request for provisional measures submitted on Thursday, Armenia asked the court to reaffirm the orders it gave Azerbaijan in February and to order it to refrain from all actions directly or indirectly aimed at displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians from the region.

Some international experts have said the exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh meets the conditions for the war crime of "deportation or forcible transfer", or even a crime against humanity.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague is the UN court for resolving disputes between countries. Its rulings are binding, but it has no direct means of enforcing them.

Photo: Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh ride in a truck upon their arrival at the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia, on 27 September 2023 (Reuters)