Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for parliamentary ratification of the treaty, known as the Rome Statute, in March. The decision came one week after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Moscow warned shortly afterwards that recognition of The Hague tribunal’s jurisdiction would have “extremely negative” consequences for Russian-Armenian relations.
In a written reply to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, the government’s press office said that the Rome Statute will soon be sent to the parliament ratification. It did not say whether lawmakers mostly representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party will be told to ratify the treaty in full or with reservations.
Independent legal experts believe that submitting to the ICC’s jurisdiction would require the Armenian authorities to arrest Putin and extradite him to The Hague tribunal if he visits the South Caucasus country.
Armenian opposition lawmakers have expressed serious concern over such a dramatic possibility, saying that it would ruin the country’s relationship with its key ally. One of them claimed in March that Pashinian engineered the Constitutional Court ruling to “please the West.” Most of the court’s current judges have been installed by Pashinian’s political team.
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet in Moscow, May 25, 2023.
Russian-Armenian relations had already soured in the months leading up to the March ruling due to what Pashinian’s administration sees as a lack of Russian support for Armenia in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
Armenia was among 120 countries that signed the Rome Statute in 1998. But the former Armenian parliaments did not ratify the treaty because the Constitutional Court ruled in 2004 that the treaty runs counter to several provisions of the Armenian constitution guaranteeing national sovereignty over judicial affairs.
Pashinian’s government decided last December to ask the court to again determine the treaty’s conformity with the constitution that has been twice amended since 2004. Justice Minister Grigor Minasian indicated at the time that Yerevan intends to appeal to the ICC over Azerbaijan’s military attacks on Armenian territory launched since May 2021.