Complaint Underscoring Baku’s ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ Filed in International Criminal Court
One year after Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh, which forced the displacement of its entire Armenian population, a lawsuit was filed at the International Criminal Court on Thursday by Artsakh’s former state minister Artak Beglaryan and Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan, as victims of “crimes against humanity.”
In association with the Tufenkian Foundation and the France-based Artsakh Support Association, known as the “Association de soutien à l’Artsakh,” leading international attorneys François Zimeray and Catalina de la Sota are representing Beglaryan and Stepanyan, the plaintiffs in the case.
The ICC complaint underscored the deprivations of food, health and other basic necessities the plaintiffs endured following Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh, which was initiated in December, 2022. That was followed by a blitzkrieg-like attack on Artsakh on September 19, 2023, forcing the population of Artsakh to flee its ancestral homeland.
Several other leaders and residents who were unable to flee Nagorno-Karabakh were arrested by the Azerbaijani authorities and have since been detained, subjected to torture and ill-treatment and denied proper access to their families and lawyers, the complaint emphasized.
“Nothing justifies the forcible uprooting of men, women and children from their home and land. The world must say no to this political bestiality. This is what is at stake in the complaint we are filing,” Zimeray and de la Sota, the attorney representing Beglaryan and Stepanyan said.
The complaint was filed in accordance with Article 15 of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, under which the prosecutor may open an investigation in light of information brought to his attention.
“The deportation of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh bears all the hallmarks of a crime against humanity. It was the forcible displacement of persons from the area in which they were lawfully present, as part of a widespread attack against the civilian population with full knowledge of it. All the conditions are present to ensure that those responsible are held accountable before international criminal justice,” the two attorneys emphasized.
