Armenia, Azerbaijan take conflict to International Criminal Court

Moscow, Sept. 24, (dpa/GNA) – In the dispute over control of the South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan have both filed complaints at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Azerbaijan had taken serious steps to bring war criminals to justice, President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Russia’s National Defence magazine published on Friday.

The court confirmed the suit filed by Azerbaijan, which was accusing the neighbouring country of “ethnic cleansing.”

Only a few days prior, Armenia had also filed a complaint with the court, accusing the Azerbaijani leadership of murder and torture of prisoners of war, among other things.

The two former Soviet republics have been embroiled in a dispute over control of Nagorno-Karabakh for decades.

They went to war over the territory in September last year, with Azerbaijan reclaiming large parts of the area it lost to Armenia in the early 1990s.

More than 6,500 people are known to have died in the fighting.

Despite a ceasefire mediated by Russia, tensions continue to flare up.

GNA