Poilievre will do 'anything to win,' must condemn Alex Jones endorsement: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ramping up his attacks on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as he promotes his government's federal budget.
Azerbaijan appealed Tuesday to the United Nations' highest court to urgently order Armenia to stop the laying of land mines and booby traps on Azerbaijani territory and disclose the location of those already planted, in the latest legal battle focused on the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenian representative Yeghishe Kirakosyan rejected the allegation, saying his country only laid mines on its own territory as a defensive tactic to combat Azerbaijani aggression. He called Azerbaijan's land mine claims "yet another transparent attempt to deflect attention from its own wrongdoing."
Azerbaijani Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Elnur Mammadov told judges at the International Court of Justice that his country has discovered more than 2,700 Armenian land mines since December 2021, when the court ordered both Azerbaijan and Armenia not to take any action that would aggravate their decades-long territorial dispute.
He said the mines and booby traps are a deliberate attempt by Armenia to prevent the return of Azerbaijanis forced from their homes by the conflict.
"If Azerbaijanis preparing the liberated territories for the return of those displaced cannot do so safely, how can displaced Azerbaijanis safely exercise their right to return?" Mammadov said. "The purpose and effect of Armenia's conduct are clear -- Azerbaijanis are not meant to."
The claim came in hearings at the court's headquarters in The Hague in a pair of cases brought by Armenia and Azerbaijan alleging breaches of a convention preventing racial discrimination.
The legal skirmishes are playing out against a backdrop of rising tensions just over two years after the neighbouring nations ended a war in Nagorno-Karabakh that killed about 6,800 soldiers and displaced around 90,000 civilians. The remote and rugged region is within Azerbaijan, but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Russia brokered a ceasefire to end the 2020 war. It granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as adjacent land occupied by Armenians. Russia sent a peacekeeping force of 2,000 troops to maintain order.
Mammadov said that 282 Azerbaijanis, including 33 civilians, have been killed by mines since the war ended.
"Armenia's planting of land mines and booby traps in or near areas where Azerbaijanis once lived -- and are expected to return -- specifically to terrorize Azerbaijanis must be understood in the broad context of its over three decade long campaign of ethnic cleansing and anti-Azerbaijani incitement," he said.
At hearings Monday, Armenian lawyers urged the court to order Azerbaijan to break up a road blockade that is isolating Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the action part of an act of "ethnic cleansing." Azerbaijan rejected the claim, accusing Armenia of using the dispute to create leverage in peace talks.
The road, known as the Lachin Corridor, is the only land connection between Armenia and the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan.
Lawyers representing Azerbaijan denied Tuesday that their request for what the court calls "provisional measures" was a tit-for-tat filing following Armenia's request that was discussed Monday. Instead, they said a court order is vital to save lives put at threat by the hidden explosives.
"The crux of the matter is this: Azerbaijanis are continuing to suffer serious injury and die because Armenia refuses to share the information that could save them," Mammadov said.
Armenian representative Kirakosyan told judges that "Armenia does not lay mines outside its sovereign territory, let alone in civilian areas" and added, "Armenia has not and does not set booby traps ever, anywhere at all."
The latest flare-up in tensions comes despite the court making orders just over a year ago that included ordering both nations to prevent discrimination against one another's citizens in the aftermath of the war and to not further aggravate the conflict.
The court will likely issue a legally binding ruling within weeks on the provisional measure requests by both countries.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ramping up his attacks on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as he promotes his government's federal budget.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
New video evidence uncovered by CNN significantly undermines two Pentagon investigations into an ISIS-K suicide attack outside Kabul airport, during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
There are 63 wildfires burning in Alberta's forest protection area as of Wednesday morning and seven mutual aid fires, including one in the Municipal District of Peace.
Arrests have been made after five men were captured on video rampaging through a jewelry store in Toronto, waving weapons and smashing glass display cases.
A Polish pilot proposed to his flight attendant girlfriend during a flight from Warsaw to Krakow, and she said yes.
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
The RCMP says a former SNC-Lavalin executive has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison in connection with a bribery scheme for a bridge repair contract in Montreal.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.