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world news Diamars 19 OctOber 2021

At UN court, Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of ethnic cleansing

(AP) — Azerbaijan’s dep- equivalencies. A tactic en-
uty foreign minister ac- gineered to create a fog of
cused Armenia of “ethnic information, one designed
cleansing” and continu- to give the impression that
ing to lay landmines in Azerbaijan is the true victim.”
Nagorno-Karabakh even
after a cease-fire ended a Mammadov said that mines
six-week war in the dis- laid by Armenian forces dur-
puted region late last year, ing and since the war have
as a second case related to killed or injured at least 106
the conflict opened at the Azerbaijanis, including 65 ci-
United Nations’ top court. vilians, since the conflict was
Armenia denied the accu- ended by a Russian-brokered
sations. peace deal.

Last week, the court held “There is no valid military or
hearings into a complaint other reason for Armenia to
brought by Armenia against continue to target and terror-
Azerbaijan, also related to last ize Azerbaijanis in this man-
year’s war that left more than ner,” he told the court.
6,600 people dead.
Kirakosyan called the claim
The “campaign of ethnic that Armenian forces con-
cleansing and incitement to tinue to lay landmines base-
violence against Azerbaijanis, less and told judges that “in
is ongoing,” Elnur Mam- the context of resolving all
madov told the International outstanding humanitarian is-
Court of Justice. sues, we stand ready to pro-
vide any more maps in our
Azerbaijan is asking the world possession.”
court’s judges to order Arme-
nia to halt the laying of land- Azerbaijan brought its case are focused on both coun- in Azerbaijan but had been nians.
mines, provide Azerbaijan to the court alleging that Ar- tries’ requests for so-called under the control of ethnic
with maps of minefields to menia’s actions breach an provisional measures that the Armenian forces backed by Last week, Armenia accused
assist clearance efforts and to international convention to court can impose in order to Armenia since the end of a Azerbaijan of inciting ethnic
take measures to halt incite- stamp out racial discrimina- prevent acts that could affect separatist war in 1994. hatred and called on Baku
ment by Armenian groups tion. Armenia’s separate case the cases. Judges will likely to release prisoners from the
of racial hatred and violence says that Azerbaijan’s treat- issue their decisions on those The fighting last year ended war. Lawyers for Azerbaijan
against Azerbaijani citizens. ment of ethnic Armenians requests in coming weeks. when Armenian Prime Min- denied the claims and said
also breaches the convention. ister Nikol Pashinyan signed Armenian forces still being
Armenian representative Both cases stem from a long- a cease-fire agreement that held have been prosecuted or
Yeghishe Kirakosyan urged Both cases will likely take running territorial dispute granted Azerbaijan control are being prosecuted for seri-
the court to reject the re- years to reach a conclusion that boiled over into last over parts of Nagorno-Kara- ous crimes.
quests, calling Azerbaijan’s at the Hague-based court. year’s war over the Nagorno- bakh as well as adjacent ter-
case “an exercise in false The hearings in recent days Karabakh region that is with- ritories occupied by Arme-

Russia suspends its mission at NATO, shuts alliance’s office

(AP) — Russia on Monday suspended its mis- further prolong the difficult situation we’re in, this
sion at NATO and ordered the closure of the “As a result of NATO’s deliberate moves, we have frosty period that’s been going on for some time,”
alliance’s office in Moscow in retaliation for practically no conditions for elementary diplo- adding that “this will put a further serious strain on
NATO’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. matic work and in response to NATO’s actions relations.”
we suspend the work of our permanent mission
Earlier this month, NATO withdrew the accredita- to NATO, including the work of the chief military “Germany has repeatedly pushed for dialogue with
tion of eight Russian officials to its Brussels head- envoy, probably from Nov. 1. Or it may take several Russia within NATO over the past years,” Maas
quarters, saying it believes they have been secretly more days,” Lavrov said. noted. “We have to recognize once more, that Rus-
working as Russian intelligence officers. NATO sia apparently no longer is. That is more than re-
also halved the size of Moscow’s team at its head- Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a separate state- grettable.”
quarters from 20 to 10. ment that NATO’s actions “confirm that they are
not interested in an equal dialogue and joint work The Russian mission isn’t based at NATO’s head-
Moscow has dismissed the accusations as baseless. to deescalate military-political tensions.” quarters, but in a leafy neighborhood in the south
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered of the Belgian capital, Brussels.
Moscow’s response Monday, announcing the sus- “The alliance’s line towards our country is be-
pension of Russia’s mission at NATO and the clo- coming more and more aggressive,” the ministry NATO suspended practical cooperation with Rus-
sure of the alliance’s military liaison and informa- noted. “The ‘Russian threat’ is inflated in order to sia in 2014 after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean
tion offices in the Russian capital. strengthen the internal unity of the alliance, to cre- Peninsula, but has kept channels open for high-
ate the appearance of its ‘relevance’ in modern geo- level meetings and for military-to-military coop-
He charged that the alliance’s action has confirmed political conditions.” eration. But the NATO-Russia Council, their pre-
that “NATO isn’t interested in any kind of equal ferred forum, has only met sporadically since then.
dialogue or joint work,” adding that “we don’t see NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said the al-
any need to keep pretending that there could be liance has taken note of Lavrov’s statement, but Amid a strain in ties, Moscow has repeatedly voiced
any shift in the foreseeable future.” added it hasn’t yet received an official notice from concerns over the deployment of NATO forces
Moscow. near Russian borders, describing it as a threat to its
Lavrov added that contacts between the Western security. Russia and the alliance also have blamed
military alliance and Russia could be maintained German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in Lux- each other for conducting destabilizing military ex-
through the Russian Embassy in Belgium. embourg that “this decision taken in Moscow will ercises near the borders.