Armenian government broke promise on ICC filing, ex-envoy says

Former Armenian MP and ambassador-at-large Edmon Marukyan has accused the country’s government of failing to bring any cases against Azerbaijan to the International Criminal Court (ICC) despite earlier pledges to do so.

Marukyan recalled a video circulated on Azerbaijani social media platforms on 2 October 2022, which appeared to show unarmed Armenian soldiers being executed on sovereign Armenia territory. He said the footage prompted renewed calls for international legal action.

According to Marukyan, the government announced nearly a year later, on 1 September 2023, that Armenia would join the ICC specifically to enable investigation of Azerbaijani war crimes.

“They promised that joining the court would allow the investigation of crimes committed by Azerbaijan and Ilham Aliyev, including the execution of unarmed Armenian soldiers,” he said in a video on Saturday. “And what is the reality today? The Armenian government has not filed a single case. It has broken its promise and is disregarding the blood shed by our soldiers on Armenia’s sovereign positions, which are now under Azerbaijani control.”

The former envoy argued that if Armenia had filed cases against Azerbaijan at the ICC, "it is possible that we would not have captives in Baku today and Azerbaijan might have withdrawn its forces from Armenian territory".