YEREVAN, 3 Oct: Armenia\u2019s parliament voted Tuesday to join the International Criminal Court, a move that further strains the country\u2019s ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine.
\nMoscow last month called Yerevan\u2019s effort to join the the ICC an \u201cunfriendly step,\u201d and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenia\u2019s ambassador. Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.
\nArmenia later sought to assure Russia that Putin would not be arrested if he entered the country.
\nStill, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Tuesday\u2019s decision \u201cincorrect,\u201d saying it will raise \u201cadditional questions\u201d in Moscow, even though Armenia is \u201cour ally, a friendly state, our partner, and a lot unites us with the brotherly Armenian people.\u201d
\nAsked if Putin would have to refrain from traveling to Armenia, he added: \u201cOf course, we wouldn\u2019t want the president to have to ever, for whatever reason, refuse a visit to Armenia.\u201d
\nA diplomatic solution is needed and will be discussed with Yerevan, he said.
\nArmenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by what they call Azerbaijan\u2019s aggression against the country.
\nLawmakers voted to ratify the Rome Statute by a vote of 60-22. The decision after that is to be submitted to Armenia\u2019s president, who must prepare a ratification document, which is then deposited with the U.N. secretary-general. The decision comes into force 60 days after the ratification, according to Armenian lawmakers.
\nArmenia\u2019s relations with Russia have frayed signific-antly in recent years.
\nIn 2020, Moscow brokered a deal that ended a six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It mandated that Yerevan cede to Baku large swaths of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan with a predominantly Armenian population.
\nRussia then sent some 2,000 peacekeepers to the tumultuous region and Armenia has accused the troops of failing to prevent recent hostilities by Azerbaijan that led to Baku taking full control of the region.
\nThe Kremlin, in turn, has accused Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of precipitating the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh by acknowledging Azerbaijan\u2019s sovereignty over the region.
\nMoscow also blames Yerevan for damaging ties with Russia by embracing the West, including hosting U.S. troops for joint military drills.
\nIt remains unclear whether Pashinyan might take Armenia out of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization, a group of several former Soviet nations, and other Russia-led alliances. Armenia also hosts a Russian military base and Russian border guards help patrol Arme-nia\u2019s frontier with Turkey.
\nArmenia had started the process of joining the ICC more than 20 years ago, but in 2004 its Constitutional Court ruled that the Rome Statute contradicted the country\u2019s constitution at the time, putting the process on pause. The constitution has been amended twice since then. In March, the Constitutional Court ruled that the obligations for signatories outlined by the Rome Statute are in line with the existing constitution.
\nArmenia\u2019s envoy on international legal matters, Yegishe Kirakosyan, said Yerevan decided to resume the process of joining the ICC because of Baku\u2019s alleged aggression against Armenia. Armenian officials last year accused Azerbaijan of killing a number of Armenian prisoners of war, an allegation Baku had promised to investigate.
\nYerevan wants the ICC\u2019s jurisdiction to take force starting from May 10, 2021, but under the court\u2019s founding treaty, Armenia would likely have to make a separate declaration to that effect.
\nKirakosyan said last week that Armenia has proposed to Moscow a bilateral agreement to assuage Russia\u2019s concerns about Putin. The text was presented to Russia in April, he said, and Armenian officials have been waiting for a response.
\nKirakosyan also said an arrest of Putin is not a poss-ibility even after Armenia joins the ICC, since \u201cleaders have immunity.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YEREVAN, 3 Oct: Armenia\u2019s parliament voted Tuesday to join the International Criminal Court, a move that further strains the country\u2019s ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine. Moscow last month called Yerevan\u2019s effort to join the the ICC an \u201cunfriendly step,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-225320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}