The Region in Brief

Armenia

Russia has warned Armenia against ratifying the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC). “Moscow considers absolutely unacceptable the plans of official Yerevan to accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court against the backdrop of the recent illegal and legally void ‘warrants’ of the ICC against the Russian leadership,” an anonymous source from the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS Russian state news agency on March 27. The source said that the Armenian side was warned of the “extremely negative” consequences of this decision. The Armenian Constitutional Court ruled on March 24 that the statute is compatible with Armenia’s constitution, paving the way for its ratification. The decision came a week after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on allegations of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia. Armenia initiated the process of ratifying the ICC statute in December 2022 in order to appeal to the Hague court to prosecute Azerbaijan for war crimes. 

Azerbaijan