CCAF urges ICC Prosecutor to issue  international arrest warrant  against Ilham Aliyev

ArmInfo. The Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) has appealed to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) urging that  there is a reasonable basis to open an investigation into the crimes  committed against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh between  2020-2023. This was reported on his Facebook page by the co- chairman  of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France,  Mourad Papazian.

The appeal also calls for issuing an international arrest warrants  against the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and all persons who  took part in the crimes committed in Nagorno-Karabakh from 2020-2023.  The CCAF also demands that to refer to the Pre-Trial Chamber the  question to the territorial jurisdiction of the Court with regard to  the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. All of the above requests  were made taking into account Article 15 of the Rome Statute.

Papazian also informed that the corresponding request was forwarded  to the ICC Prosecutor through Sevag Torossian, lawyer at the Paris  Bar Association and with the International Criminal Court,.  The  appeal emphasizes that the large-scale military aggression of  Azerbaijan against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) from  September 27, 2020 to October 4, 2023 caused the exodus of 120,000  Armenians (over 150 thousand - ed.) and the loss of their  civilizational heritage several thousand years old.  "Many NGOs, as  well as the first ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, have all  retained the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war  crimes to qualify the atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani  authorities.

The co-Presidents of the CCAF, Messes.  Ara Toranian and Mourad  Papazian, recently called on the French government to refer the  matter to the ICC for the purpose of opening an investigation into  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The whole West has so far lacked  the courage.  This is the second time since 1915 that Armenians have  faced such a denial of justice. This situation is intolerable. The  purpose of the International Criminal Court is to neutralize  genocidal leaders and put an end to all forms of denial," the CCAF  statement reads.