Armenia tells World Court Azerbaijan blockade is 'ethnic cleansing'

[Kennah]

Source: Reuters

Armenia told judges at the World Court on Monday that a blockade of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by neighbouring Azerbaijan was designed to allow "ethnic cleansing", a claim rejected by Baku.

The Lachin corridor is the only route whereby Armenia can provide food, fuel and medicine supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but home to around 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

The corridor has been blocked since Dec. 12, when protesters claiming to be environmental activists stopped traffic by setting up tents. Azerbaijan denies any blockade, saying the activists are staging a legitimate protest against illegal mining activity.

Monday's hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, was called to hear an Armenian request for the court to order Azerbaijan to lift the blockade.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/armenia-tells-world-court-azerbaijan-blockade-is-ethnic-cleansing-2023-01-30/

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The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the former Yugoslavia descending into multiple wars of ethnic cleansing.

Will the weakness of the Russian Federation lead to a war of ethnic cleansing between Azerbaijan and Armenia?

[regnaD kciN]

1. "The collapse of the Soviet Union"...

…had nothing to do with Yugoslavia’s breakup. Rather, that situation was caused by the death of Tito, who was the only leader who could hold all the factions of that union together. Once he was gone, it inevitably fractured along ethnic and religious lines.

It needs to be remembered that, although Yugoslavia was communist, it was the only country in Europe that became so without “assistance” from the U.S.S.R., which is why it was in the unusual state of being the only communist country that was a U.S. ally during the Cold War.

[Kennah]

2. Tito died in 1980. Soviet Union had no strong leader like Tito.

But they did have brute force. Once gone.

[WestMichRad]

3. Not relevant to this conflict.

Armenia (a landlocked country) and Azerbaijan are between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (which is east of the Black Sea). The former Yugoslavia is on the east side of the Aegean Sea, east of Italy.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are former states of the USSR. There are also many ethnic Armenians living in Turk, where they are hated by the Turks.

[Lulu KC]

4. Thank you n/t

[tornado34jh]

5. It's very different to the Yugoslavia breakup and this is completely different

The issue with Armenia and Azerbaijan is with an area called Nagorno-Karabakh (or Artsakh to the people there). After the Soviet Union fell, the Armenian people there declared independence. However, it is recognized as part of Azerbaijan. In a nutshell, it started when the Soviets decided to keep that region under Azerbaijan, albeit with regional autonomy. It was only during the 1980s-1990s when the Armenians there wanted to unify with Armenia, and then on December 10th, 1991, in a referendum there, the Armenians there declared an independent state. However, both sides ended up doing mass murder (e.g. Khojaly, 1992, Maraga), and this occurred even just before the Soviet Union fell and since then, it has been off and on war, although in 2020 Azerbaijan reclaimed a lot of the area. But again, Azerbaijan and Turkey are close allies and thus will help each other, and both are dictatorships. A lot of it deals with Pan-Turkism/Neo-Ottomanism, although those two things are somewhat different.