Mirzoyan: Azerbaijan failing to unblock Karabakh despite ICJ order

PanARMENIAN.Net - Provisional measures granted by the International Court of Justice are legally binding but Azerbaijan has failed to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Tuesday, February 28.

Mirzoyan participated in the UN Human Rights Council 52nd Session and delivered remarks.

“Azerbaijan continues to breach principles of the international human rights law and international humanitarian law. It has been for around 80 days that Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outer world. Azerbaijan has also disrupted the electricity and is regularly cutting the gas supply. As a result, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan announced at the highest level that it can lift the blockade for all those who want to leave Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a creeping ethnic cleansing in making,” Mirzoyan said.

“In this context, I would like to underline that on 22 February the International Court of Justice issued a legally binding provisional measure against Azerbaijan in the proceedings brought by Armenia against it, while unanimously rejecting Azerbaijan’s requests made in the parallel proceedings with respect to alleged laying of mines by Armenia. In the mentioned order, the Court has found that there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm to Armenians’ rights under the Convention for Elimination of Racial Discrimination and ordered Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. The ICJ provisional measures are legally binding, however, thus far Azerbaijan failed to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor.”

Since December 12, the sole road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia - the Lachin Corridor - has been blocked by self-described Azerbaijani environmentalists. Karabakh residents have reported food and fuel shortages, while hospital patients don't have access to essential medicines, with only a handful allowed transfer to facilities in Armenia proper.