Armenia ratifies ICC founding treaty, angering Russia

Some 60 deputies voted in favour with 22 — mainly opposition members — voting against joining the court.

An car abandoned by fleeing Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Picture: AFP

Armenian legislators approved a key step towards joining the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, escalating tensions with the former Soviet country’s traditional ally, Moscow.

Russia said it was “wrong” to ratify the treaty to join The Hague-based court, which in March issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and the illegal deportation of children to Russia.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen hailed the vote, saying “The world is getting smaller for the autocrat in the Kremlin” in a reference to Mr Putin and the arrest warrant.

ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader sets foot on their territory.

The vote illustrated a growing chasm between Moscow and Yerevan, which has grown angry with the Kremlin over its perceived inaction over Armenia’s long-standing confrontation with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani forces in September swept through the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh – where Russian peacekeepers are deployed – and secured the surrender of Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the mountainous region for decades.

Some 60 Armenian deputies voted in favour, with 22, mainly opposition members, against joining the ICC.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Armenia had taken a “wrong decision”.

Tensions have also been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which announced its dissolution last week following the lightning military operation by Baku.

The territory lies within the internationally recognised border of Azerbaijan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week sought to assuage Kremlin fears, saying the initiative was not “directed against” Russia. “It comes from the interests of the country’s external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right,” he said.

Mr Pashinyan has been critical of Moscow’s refusal to intervene during Azerbaijan’s offen­sive, and previously said his country’s security alliance with Moscow was “ineffective”.

Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1999 but did not ratify it, citing contradictions with the country’s constitution. The constitutional court said in March those obstacles had been removed after Armenia’s adoption of a new constitution in 2015.

After the offensive last month, most of the Armenian population fled Karabakh, whose authorities announced it would be dissolved by January 1, 2024.

After the fall of the Russian Empire, the mountainous region, populated mainly by Armenians who regard it as part of their ancestral land, has been part of Azerbaijan. It unilaterally proclaimed its independence with the support of Armenia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The international community never recognised the territory’s independence.

AFP