By Arshaluys Barseghyan and Aytan Farhadova
Armenia has vowed to “refute” a Permanent Court of Arbitration claim filed against the country by Azerbaijan over alleged environmental destruction it caused in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a post on the platform formerly known as Twitter on Friday, February 14, Armenia’s international legal affairs representative, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, called Azerbaijan’s claims “baseless,” criticizing its “preposterous demand for compensation in the arbitration under the 1979 Bern Convention.”
The statement was in response to a claim filed by Azerbaijan at the Permanent Court of Arbitration on February 12, accusing Armenia of committing multiple violations of its legal obligations under the convention — including the destruction of habitats and species — in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“This includes widespread deforestation, environmentally unsustainable logging, mining, and construction of hydropower plants […] which negatively affected the hundreds of wildlife species and their habitats native to that territory,” read the statement about the filing of the claim.
Kirakosyan’s office vowed on 12 February to “vigorously defend its position in these proceedings” and to refute Azerbaijan’s “baseless claims as well as its demand for compensation.”
