Armenia Files - Part 1
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December 12 2022. One road. 120,000 people. Blocked. The ICJ issued a binding order. Azerbaijan ignored it for seven months.
On December 12 2022, Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting the 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to the outside world. Food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid were cut off. On February 22 2023, the International Court of Justice issued a near-unanimous binding order requiring Azerbaijan to ensure unimpeded movement along the corridor. Azerbaijan ignored it. The blockade continued for seven more months until the military offensive of September 19 2023.
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December 12 2022 · Lachin corridor blocked · 120,000 ethnic Armenians cut off02 / 07
December 12 2022. Azerbaijan blocked the only road connecting 120,000 ethnic Armenians to the world.
The Lachin corridor is a 5-kilometre mountain road that serves as the sole overland connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. On December 12 2022, Azerbaijani activists established checkpoints on the road, citing protests against alleged illegal mining. Armenia stated Azerbaijan orchestrated the protests. The blockade severed essential supplies to approximately 120,000 residents, precipitating acute shortages of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid. Human Rights Watch, Nagorno-Karabakh documentation, hrw.org.
The blockade was total in practical effect. Schools were closed. Hundreds of people requiring surgery could not reach hospitals in Armenia. The ICRC documented its own convoys being blocked on the road it was supposed to use to deliver humanitarian supplies. The European Court of Human Rights on December 21 2022 instructed Azerbaijan to take all measures within its jurisdiction to ensure safe passage through the corridor of seriously ill persons in need of medical treatment. Azerbaijan did not comply. Forbes, August 2023.
Source: ICJ, Armenia v. Azerbaijan case filing, December 2022 · Forbes, Lachin Corridor Blockade Starves Nagorno-Karabakh, August 2023 · Human Rights Watch, hrw.org
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February 22 2023 · ICJ binding order · Near-unanimous · Azerbaijan ignored it03 / 07
February 22 2023. The ICJ issued a near-unanimous binding order. Azerbaijan shall ensure unimpeded movement along the Lachin corridor. Azerbaijan ignored it.
The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, issued its order on February 22 2023 in the case Armenia v. Azerbaijan. The order was near-unanimous and had binding effect. It stated that Azerbaijan shall, pending the final decision in the case, take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. ICJ, icj-cij.org, February 22 2023.
Azerbaijan accepted ICJ jurisdiction under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination since 1996. Despite this, Azerbaijan rejected aspects of the order, arguing it lacked jurisdiction over internal security measures. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated it was outraged at Azerbaijan's blatant disregard for the binding ICJ decision and equally concerned with the lack of support from the international community in enforcing it. The blockade continued. Lawfare Media, April 2023.
Source: ICJ, Summary of Order of 22 February 2023, icj-cij.org · Lemkin Institute non-compliance statement, February 2023 · Lawfare Media, April 2023
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Nine months · Food rationed · ICJ found real and imminent risk to health and life04 / 07
Nine months. Food rationed. Surgeries missed. The ICJ found a real and imminent risk to the health and life of 120,000 people.
In its February 2023 order, the ICJ found it plausible that the rights of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination were at risk, and concluded there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to those rights. It found the material elements consistent with inflicting on a group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction. Just Security, November 2023.
The practical consequences documented during the nine-month blockade included: residents waiting hours daily for bread rations; schools closed across the region; the ICRC blocked from delivering medical supplies; utility cuts including gas and internet; four civilian deaths directly attributed to the blockade; and the detention of two independent journalists who attempted to document the situation. The Berkadzor fuel depot explosion during the subsequent exodus killed 218 people, linked directly to the fuel scarcity created by the blockade. Human Rights Watch, hrw.org.
Source: ICJ Order February 22 2023 · Just Security, starvation as genocide analysis, November 2023 · ICRC, Nagorno-Karabakh documentation
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ICRC blocked · Amnesty International · Human Rights Watch · All named and documented05 / 07
The ICRC documented its own convoys being blocked. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both named Azerbaijan's non-compliance.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has a protected mandate under international humanitarian law, documented that its convoys were unable to pass freely along the Lachin corridor. The ICRC repeatedly called for unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian supplies to the 120,000 people cut off by the blockade. This is separately documented from the ICJ proceedings and constitutes an independent institutional record of the blockade's impact.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both documented the humanitarian impact of the blockade and called on Azerbaijan to comply with the ICJ order. UN experts on August 7 2023 raised the alarming situation in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of the ongoing blockade and stated that the blockade had been obstructing the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia since December 2022. The blockade continued for six more weeks after the UN experts' statement. Forbes, August 2023.
Source: ICRC, Nagorno-Karabakh access documentation 2023 · Amnesty International · Human Rights Watch · UN experts statement, August 7 2023, Forbes
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Nine months of blockade · Then the offensive · The architecture preceded the event06 / 07
The blockade ran from December 12 2022 to September 2023. The offensive followed immediately. The architecture preceded the event by nine months.
The blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh lasted from December 12 2022 until the Azerbaijani military offensive of September 19 2023. When the offensive began, the Lachin corridor was briefly opened to allow the mass exodus of the population. The nine-month blockade had depleted food stocks, closed schools, prevented medical treatment and left the population with no means of sustained resistance. The GAAMAC Atrocity Alert documented that the military operation was preceded by a nine-month-long blockade that ended with a ceasefire on September 20 2023.
The ICJ binding order of February 22 2023 was ignored for seven of the nine months of the blockade. Armenia sought to raise the issue of Azerbaijan's non-compliance with the ICJ ruling at the UN Security Council but the Security Council did not take binding action. The voluntary nature of international law enforcement and the absence of a Security Council mechanism to enforce ICJ orders meant the binding order remained a document without consequence. Lemkin Institute, February 2023.
Source: GAAMAC Atrocity Alert 2023 · ICJ Order February 22 2023 · Lemkin Institute non-compliance statement
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The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
December 12 2022. One road. 120,000 people. Blocked. The ICJ issued a binding order on February 22 2023. Azerbaijan ignored it for seven months. What does it mean when the highest court in the world issues a binding order and nothing enforces it?
Tomorrow: September 19 2023. The 24-hour offensive. The Lemkin Institute had declared a genocide watch before it began. The Republic of Artsakh, which had existed since 1991, dissolved by presidential decree on September 28 2023. 100,617 people crossed into Armenia by October 3, 99 percent of the population. Part 2 of 4.
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