Yerevan last month signed the ratification of the ICC’s founding treaty also known as the Rome Statute, recognizing the Court’s jurisdiction. Armenia says this would allow the Court’s prosecutors to investigate alleged crimes committed in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Baku in September retook complete control of the region after a lightning offensive, resulting in more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing across the border into Armenia. Yerevan has accused Baku of “ethnic cleansing” in the region, a claim Azerbaijan strongly denies.
Risking more tensions with Russia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met on November 10 with Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the ICC who issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March. The meeting took place on the sidelines of an annual Paris Peace Forum held in the French capital.
One week after the order for Putin’s arrest over war crimes allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for parliamentary ratification of the Rome Statute. Despite stern warnings issued by the Russian leadership in the following months, the National Assembly controlled by Pashinian’s party ratified the treaty on October 3.
The move added to unprecedented tensions between the two states. Russian officials said it will cause serious damage to Russian-Armenian relations. They dismissed Yerevan’s assurances that the ratification does not commit it to arresting Putin and handing him over to the ICC in the event of his visit to Armenia.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said earlier this month that it has proposed to Moscow a bilateral agreement that “can dispel the concerns of the Russian Federation.” Russian lawmakers brushed aside the proposal.