Newsweek: The ICC decisions should not be ambiguous or biased, which we can see in the case of Azerbaijan
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, Newsweek writes.
As noted, 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,” the article says, noting that Azerbaijan is doing everything to skirt any accountability for its 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,” the article notes.
It was noted that the decisions of the ICC should not be ambiguous or biased.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing that currently with Azerbaijan,” the website writes.
As noted, after the illegal war against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan continues to destroy Armenian cultural and historic sites, including churches and monasteries, which have stood for hundreds of years in an attempt to erase any traces of Armenian existence in the region. The 2020 war was followed by a 10-month blockade that made living conditions so unbearable that more than 120,000 Armenians were pressured to leave 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.
“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,” Newsweek writes.
