Armenia on Thursday accused its rival Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing" in Nagorno-Karabakh at the UN's top court, urging judges to protect the handful of ethnic Armenians still living in the breakaway region.
"Less than nine months ago, I stood at this podium and warned that Azerbaijan was putting in motion a plan to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh of all ethnic Armenians," said Armenia's representative at the International Court of Justice.
"Madame President, it pains me greatly to say that it has now materialised," added Yeghishe Kirakosyan.
The ICJ hearings come only weeks after Azerbaijan's lightning offensive to take control of the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time in three decades.
The one-day operation sparked a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians, with the vast majority of the estimated 120,000 who had been living in the territory fleeing into Armenia.
The separatist Karabakh authorities announced that the self-proclaimed republic will be dissolved on January 1, 2024.
"Despite comprising for millennia the great majority of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, almost no ethnic Armenians remain in Nagorno-Karabakh today. If this is not ethnic cleansing, I do not know what is," said Kirakosyan.
Baku strongly denies any charge of ethnic cleansing and has publicly called on Armenian residents of the territory to stay and "reintegrate" into Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's ICJ representative will respond later Thursday.
- 'Safe and expeditious return' -
The hearings concern Armenia's request to the ICJ to order Azerbaijan to "withdraw all military and law-enforcement personnel from all civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh."
It has also called on the court to ensure Azerbaijan "refrain from taking any actions... having the effect of displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians... or preventing the safe and expeditious return" of refugees.
"There is still time to prevent the forced displacement of ethnic Armenians from becoming irreversible and to protect the very few ethnic Armenians who remain in Nagorno-Karabakh," said Kirakosyan.
"You can still make a meaningful difference on the ground today," he told the judges.
The ICJ rules on disputes between states, but while its decisions are legally binding, it has no power to enforce them.
Thursday's hearings at the iconic Peace Palace in The Hague are the latest in a long-running legal battle between the two rivals.
Each country has accused the other of breaching a UN treaty, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh was populated mainly by Armenians and became part of Azerbaijan under Soviet rule, in the years following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
It unilaterally proclaimed its independence with the support of Armenia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
In the wake of the operation in September, Armenian lawmakers approved a key step in joining another international court based in The Hague -- the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This infuriated its traditional ally Russia because the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on allegations of abducting Ukrainian children during Moscow's war on Ukraine.
