AZERBAIJANI lawyers urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today to throw out a case against them over its “state-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred” in the Nargorno-Karabakh dispute.

Tensions over the region led to a 2020 war killing more than 6,600 people.

Armenian filed a case with the top United Nations court in 2021, saying Azerbaijan’s “hatred” has led to “systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other abuse.”

Its case is based on an international convention on stamping out racial discrimination, which has a clause allowing disputes to be resolved by the court if bilateral negotiations fail to broker a settlement.

Azerbaijan has argued that ICJ judges do not have jurisdiction in the case.

Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov told judges today that Armenia could not bring the dispute to the court in The Hague, arguing that the two countries had not first engaged in serious negotiations.

“Armenia had its sights firmly set on commencing these proceedings before the court and using the effect of these proceedings to wage a public media campaign against Azerbaijan,” Mr Mammadov said.

International law professor Stefan Talmon, representing Azerbaijan, said that Armenia “never gave negotiations a chance.”

He said that “with no negotiations and no genuine attempt at negotiations, that basically is the end of Armenia’s application” to the court.

Azerbaijan also argued that most allegations in Armenia’s case fall outside the scope of the discrimination convention, meaning the court did not have jurisdiction.

Armenia is scheduled to respond on Tuesday to Azerbaijan’s arguments.

Azerbaijan has also brought a case against Armenia at the court alleging breaches of the same convention.

Objections filed by Armenia to the Azerbaijani case will be heard later this month.