It appears that not everyone has been able to get to the bottom of it off the bat, especially since judgments of the UN ICJ hardly resemble those of an “assembly of honorable citizens” in a small town square in the Wild West, where the only two verdicts were “Hang!” or “Not guilty!”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, including through the head of its press service Aykhan Hajizade, methodically spells out what the court’s decision actually was (and what it was not).
For a start, the International Court of Justice has not passed any “verdicts” that must be immediately enforced. It is only a matter of appeals. Further, despite Armenia’s best efforts and public hysterics, the International Court of Justice rejected two of Armenia’s three demands: for “provisional measures requiring Azerbaijan to cease its alleged ‘orchestration and support’ of the protests” and “to immediately restore and refrain from disrupting the supply of natural gas…” Translated from the bureaucratic judicial language, it means that at the level of the International Court of Justice, it is recognized that the protest on the Lachin road was NOT ORGANIZED and is NOT BEING MANAGED by the Azerbaijani authorities. This is a campaign of the civil society. Therefore, they can no longer demand that the Azerbaijani authorities “open the road” with the same fervor as before.
As for Armenia’s third demand to ensure “unimpeded movement” along the Lachin road, Yerevan has suffered a judicial fiasco there as well. The decision of the court is not the one they wanted in Yerevan. The words “freely” and “all” were excluded from the final ruling, that is, once again, translated from the bureaucratic judicial language, Armenia is not granted carte blanche to transport anything it wants via the Lachin road. Moreover, two other phrases were added: “pending a final decision” (i.e., it is acknowledged that the Lachin road cannot operate normally in the current situation) and “take all measures at its [Azerbaijan’s] disposal”. That is, Azerbaijan has been called upon to do exactly what is being done today: to ensure the transit of people and goods. And now our Foreign Ministry recalls: since Azerbaijan never did block the Lachin road in the first place, it will now comply with the court’s decision by continuing not to block it.
And the real bad news for Armenia is that the International Court of Justice has reiterated its call to refrain from any action that may aggravate or expand the dispute between the two countries. According to the December 2021 judgment, there is still an obligation to take urgent measures to prevent incitement and propaganda of racial hatred against Azerbaijanis, addressed to Armenia. Lastly, one more detail: Azerbaijan will continue its efforts to bring Armenia to justice for its long history of violations of the rights of Azerbaijanis.
This court decision cannot even be called a “lively draw”. This is an undoubted, albeit indirect, success for Azerbaijan, where the military and diplomatic “offensive” is now being followed by a judicial one.
And what is left for Armenia to do in this situation? Call Amal Clooney for help? The International Court of Justice is not an institution where rehearsed cries and hysterics like “Azerbaijan is a dictatorship, while Armenia is a beacon of democracy” will do. Admit that they failed to get the verdict they needed through the International Court of Justice? That is not much of an option, either. And so Yerevan takes the usual path, issuing statements that brazenly and shamelessly twist the court’s ruling. First such statements came from the Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (and probably not because he was hit on the head too hard in November 2020 and is simply unable to comprehend a text now). Then Ruben Vardanyan made an attempt at wishful thinking: this criminal oligarch began to argue that now “Azerbaijan must take all necessary measures to ensure the unimpeded and free movement of all persons, vehicles and goods through the corridor connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” even though the court documents contain no reference to any “Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Meanwhile, Nikol Pashinyan spoiled his own propagandists’ game. He said that if there was evidence that someone died because of the power outages in Karabakh, then he would file a new appeal to the UN International Court of Justice, thereby acknowledging that the Armenian side has nothing resembling evidence. But he seems to have scared the meager remaining population of the “stump”: they have already introduced food stamps and vouchers for non-food items to paint a more vivid picture of the “blockade”. How will they fabricate evidence of “deaths due to power outage” for the court now?
And how can they be sure that this fabricated “evidence” will hold in court?
