Armenia had warned that it would follow through with its approach despite Russia’s hostility. Of which act. On Tuesday, October 3, the Armenian Parliament ratified the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin in March. The elected officials voted 60 in favor (22 against). With this ratification, Yerevan therefore sees itself obliged, in theory, to arrest the Russian president if he is on its soil, and to extradite him to the court in The Hague.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov immediately denounced a decision “wrong”and said he doubted that this was “correct from the point of view of bilateral relations”. He added that Armenia had no ” nothing better “ that the alliance with Moscow, while again condemning the arrest warrant, judged ” illegal “, issued by the ICC against Vladimir Putin as well as the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for war crimes linked to the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. Five days earlier, Mr. Peskov had already warned against the prospect of such ratification, deemed “extremely hostile”.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted that this ratification was not aimed at Russia, but that it was necessary to guarantee that his country was protected by international law against Azerbaijan. On September 19, Baku won a lightning military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh, which precipitated the fall of the self-proclaimed Republic of this separatist region, and the exodus of its population.
“Additional guarantees”
Armenia, which accuses Russia of having abandoned it in the face of a much richer and better armed adversary, is now worried about the security of its own territory. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has repeatedly threatened to obtain by force the Zangezur corridor, supposed to connect his country to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan (southwest of Armenia), and offer a land link with Turkey. Since 2021, Azerbaijani troops have also occupied more than 150 km2 of sovereign Armenian territory near the border, according to Yerevan, which Baku denies.
Join the ICC “would create additional guarantees for Armenia” against Azerbaijan, Eghiche Kirakosian, an official responsible for international justice affairs, pleaded again on Tuesday at the opening of the debates in Parliament. A potential invasion of Armenia “will fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC”which will have a “deterrent effect”, he explained to elected officials. Visiting Yerevan on Tuesday, the head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, welcomed the Armenian ratification. “The fight against impunity for crimes is a condition for peace and stability”she declared on X (formerly Twitter).
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