Armenia is not asking the court to rule on the root causes of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall, but “seeks to prevent and remedy the cycle of violence and hatred perpetrated against ethnic Armenians.” Armenia’s representative Yeghishe Kirakosyan stated about this at Thursday’s hearing of the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the lawsuit for the application for interim measures in the case of the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Kirakosyan told the court that despite the deal that ended last year’s conflict, “Azerbaijan continues to espouse and actively promote ethnic hatred against Armenians.”  He said that Azerbaijan has “captured, tortured, and arbitrarily detained numerous members of Armenian armed forces and civilians of ethnic Armenian origin” and “continues to destroy Armenian cultural heritage and religious sites or negate the Armenian character, and the territory’s economic controls.”

Kirakosyan said Armenia was not asking ICJ to rule on the root causes of the war, but “seeks to prevent and remedy the cycle of violence and hatred perpetrated against ethnic Armenians.”