ArmInfo.The intention of Azerbaijan to file a counterclaim against Armenia on the same grounds as the claim of the RA in the UN International Court of Justice against Azerbaijan is outside the scope of international law. This opinion was expressed by the lawmaker of the "Hayastan" opposition faction of the RA National Assembly, lawyer Aram Vardevanyan on September 17.
Earlier it was reported that the Republic of Armenia filed a lawsuit with the UN International Court of Justice, accusing Azerbaijan of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). As stated in the official statement of the international court, in the statement the Armenian side claims that for decades Azerbaijan has subjected the Armenian people to racial discrimination, and that as a result of the state-sponsored hate policy towards the Armenians, the latter have been subjected to mass killings, torture and other crimes. In addition, the statement says that these violations again came to the fore in the course of the conflict initiated by the Azerbaijani side in September 2020, which once again grossly violated the Convention (CERD). The purpose of the lawsuit is to protect the rights of Armenia and Armenians from further infringements, as well as to prevent the aggravation of disagreements. As a result, Armenia demanded that the UN International Court of Justice introduce temporary measures against Azerbaijan, marking this as a matter of extreme urgency. Reacting to this information, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, represented by the head of the press service department Leyla Abdullayeva, told reporters that "in addition to the lawsuit filed by Azerbaijan against Armenia in the European Court of Human Rights in January this year, Azerbaijan will go to court in the coming days to hold Armenia accountable for the systematic violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) ". She noted that "after the cessation of the illegal occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, the facts of gross violations of human rights against Azerbaijanis were carefully collected and documented." "This includes cases of forced expulsion, ill-treatment, torture, and murder of Azerbaijanis because of their ethnicity," she said, adding that "after the signing of the trilateral statement, Armenia continued to violate ICERD, preventing the return of Azerbaijani displaced persons by mining the former occupied territories and refusing to provide Azerbaijan with maps of mined areas. "
Aram Vardevanyan reminded today that in one of his speeches he gave a clear assessment to high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan and Turkey, calling them international criminals, for which he was accused by representatives of the ruling faction of "violating the presumption of innocence." "I believe that the complaint presented in this logic is logical. Of course, the legal process is multi-layered, but I think it could have been presented earlier," he said. Touching upon the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, he called it nonsense, which is outside the legal processes, especially international law. "For the world community, I think it is clear and obvious which side, more precisely Azerbaijan, committed a number of violations of international law: violation of the principle of prohibition of the use of force, not to mention a gross violation of the right of nations to self-determination, which continues to this day."
At the same time, Vardevanian does not understand why Armenian officials do not give such harsh assessments when expressing their positions.