International Criminal Court in Armenian mess Yerevan's new “weapon”

Less than two weeks have passed since the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered into force in Armenia (February 1).

Yerevan is already trying to impose its own rules, voicing its wishes and fantasies in the hope of “punishing Azerbaijan” for allegedly “deporting Armenians” from Karabakh.

This myth, as is known, is actively promoted both by Armenia itself and by its lobbyists abroad to mislead the international community and denigrate Azerbaijan.

Thus, while delivering a speech in the Netherlands at an official event dedicated to Armenia’s accession to the ICC, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan spoke about “the need to create an international judicial system that will envisage the punishment of those who committed genocide and other heinous crimes”.

“Today the International Criminal Court acts as a bulwark against the horrors of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity,” Mirzoyan said.

“In this regard, Armenia's consistent approach to cooperation with the ICC is based on the following main goals: to prevent the most heinous crimes that concern the entire international community; strengthen the rule of law in the international community; make the ICC more universal,” Mirzoyan added, noting that “the Rome Statute, among other mechanisms, has real potential to prevent further escalation and atrocities against Armenia.

Mirzoyan’s statements leave no doubt that the Armenian leadership expects extremely positive results from the use of ICC mechanisms soon.

“Armenia’s accession to the ICC will not help it in the confrontation with Azerbaijan,” Russian political analyst Alexey Naumov told Caliber.Az.

He noted that Yerevan hopes to use the ICC as a weapon against Azerbaijan, but the ICC has no power and will not make any decisions against Azerbaijan as Baku is fully right in connection with the Karabakh issue.

The ratification of the Rome Statute does not give Armenia any advantages over Azerbaijan. This step by the Armenian side greatly spoiled the difficult relations with Russia.

The Kremlin, without any optimism, said that the actions of its ally are “the sovereign right of Yerevan”. It is quite obvious that the provocative policy of the Armenian authorities has greatly reduced Moscow’s credibility.

Naumov agrees with this statement saying that “Yerevan’s provocative step was aimed at undermining relations with Moscow”.

“Armenia, being an ally of Russia, does not behave quite like an ally,” Naumov said, noting that the Armenian side showed its true face.

Another Russian expert in international affairs Dmitry Verkhoturov said that by joining the Rome Statute, Armenia greatly quarreled with Russia, which ultimately hit the Armenians themselves.

“Armenia is trying to harm Azerbaijan and use the ICC to bring charges against it for allegedly carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Karabakh. However, we saw that the Armenians left Karabakh of their own will. No one raised the question of expelling them from Karabakh,” the expert noted.

“There would be no threat to the civilians if they continued living in Karabakh. However, Baku can give a reasoned response to both Armenia and the International Criminal Court, having collected numerous documents testifying to Armenian war crimes in Karabakh, the Khojaly massacre, hostage-taking and other atrocities,” Verkhoturov noted.

The expert added that these documents must be officially submitted to the ICC as evidence of crimes against humanity that do not have a statute of limitations, and which it is obliged to consider.

“Otherwise, if the ICC turn a blind eye to these documents, or begins to refute and challenge them, then Baku can declare through its Foreign Ministry that the ICC essentially does nothing and that it has usurped the right to judge on unknown grounds. I think that it is necessary to talk to them like this: either you adhere to your principles and, accordingly, you are considered an authoritative international organisation, or leave us alone,” he said.

In conclusion, we would like to add that Baku immediately reacted to Mirzoyan’s provocative statements. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused Yerevan of trying to use the ICC to promote hatred against Azerbaijan.

“This speech once again demonstrates that Armenia’s accession to the Rome Statute was an attempt to use these institutions for its unfounded claims, malicious actions, propaganda of hatred, disinformation and misinterpretation of international law,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry noted.