The ICC Must Issue an Arrest Warrant for Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif for their roles in the Israel-Hamas war highlights a double standard when it comes to genocide allegations.
While there is no doubt that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed during the war, with both Palestinians and Israelis suffering unimaginable losses, the ICC’s ruling lacks any consistency in its application of the law and its meaning.
That is why the ICC must also issue an arrest warrant for Azerbaijan’s petro-dictator, Ilham Aliyev, for committing similar war crimes and other human rights violations, including the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh last year, if they want the world to take them seriously. And while the Center for Truth and Justice (CFTJ), a U.S-based human rights organization, petitioned the ICC earlier this year to investigate an alleged genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh, there has been little movement so far on that request.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attends an informal annual summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) heads of state at the Konstantin Palace presidential residence in Strelna, outside St. Petersburg, Russia. EVGENY BIYATOV / SPUTNIK VIA AP IMAGESFor far too long, we have seen governments like Azerbaijan use realpolitik to skirt any accountability for their actions. It is one of the reasons why they have been able to use global forums like COP29, the annual U.N. climate change conference which they recently hosted, to whitewash their image on the world stage.
Cherry-picking what represents genocide sends the wrong message to despots and would-be aggressors who see that type of validation as a green light to act with impunity and dismiss oversight from international regulators and legal authorities. By not treating Aliyev as a war criminal, the ICC further perpetuates a sense of hypocrisy in the enforcement of the law and gives critics an opportunity to question its authenticity.
The ICC must be all in when it comes to genocide allegations. They can’t be for some and not for others. There should be no equivocation or the appearance of partiality.
Unfortunately, we are seeing that currently with Azerbaijan.
Taking a page out of the playbook of another strongman, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Aliyev used the pretext of historical revisionism to launch an unprovoked and illegal war against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020. Using the discredited theory that Nagorno-Karabakh was settled by Caucasian Albanians and not Armenians, Aliyev convinced himself and the world that Armenians have no historical rights to their land. Nothing could be further from the truth, which explains why Azerbaijan continues to destroy Armenian cultural and historic sites, including churches and monasteries, which have stood for hundreds of years in attempt to erase any traces of Armenian existence in the region.
The 2020 war was followed by a 10-month blockade of the only road linking Armenians in the area to the outside world that made living conditions so unbearable that Armenians were pressured to leave their homes.
That is exactly what happened when in September 2023, Azerbaijan forced more than 120,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, making it the largest displacement of Armenians since the Armenian genocide of 1915. In one fell swoop, Azerbaijan upended a thousand-year-old culture and civilization overnight. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the ICC, called it a genocide and said it was one of the world’s largest refugee and humanitarian crises at that time.
Despite these crimes and atrocities, Azerbaijan has been able to avoid any punishment or scorn from the international community. Azerbaijan’s actions have only been met with inaction from the United States and the West.
Enamored with Azerbaijan’s vast oil and natural resources and proximity to Iran for military intelligence, Western leaders like President Joe Biden have refused to condemn Azerbaijan and have blocked numerous United Nations resolutions criticizing Azerbaijan. The Biden administration has also opposed every congressional measure aimed at holding Azerbaijan accountable or securing the release of Armenian POWs and political prisoners.
Even the European Union signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to double gas imports by 2027, with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, calling Aliyev a “reliable partner.”
This lack of accountability allows countries like Azerbaijan to act with impunity while undermining the integrity of international tribunals like the ICC, which were created to prevent war crimes from happening in the first place.
Being inconsistent with genocide allegations sets a dangerous precedent. It denies victims proper justice and essentially says that genocides are not all created equal. If the ICC wants any credibility over their recent arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders, then they must be consistent in how they interpret and enforce the law. They can start by turning their attention to Azerbaijan.
Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a first-generation Armenian American and grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide. You can follow him on X at @spechdimaldji.
