Armenia becomes a full member of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Russian war criminal Vladimir Putin. Putin will never be able to visit the country again, as the local authorities will be obliged to arrest him. This is another episode of the escalating tension between Armenia and Russia after the pogrom against the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and the lack of reaction from Moscow.
Armenia has officially submitted the documents confirming the ratification of the Rome Statute and will become a full member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from February 1, 2024, the judicial institution announced on its website, BTA reported.
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“Armenia will become the 124th participating country and the 19th country of the Eastern European group,” the court noted. In addition, the ICC added that Amernia submitted documents confirming that “Armenia will retroactively accept the court’s jurisdiction from May 10, 2021.”
Moscow previously described Yerevan’s decision to join the Rome Statute as a completely hostile act. In March, a court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, on charges of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, which is a war crime, Reuters noted.
Russia admits it has transferred thousands of children out of Ukraine, but says it has done so exclusively to protect orphans and children left behind in the war zone. The Kremlin rejects both the charges and the court’s jurisdiction. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, for his part, stated that Yerevan’s decision to join the ICC does not mean a change in foreign policy course. He noted that it was not directed against Russia, and the application to join was submitted before the warrant for Putin’s arrest was issued. According to him, the Rome Statute provides an opportunity to settle relations with individual countries on a bilateral basis.
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2023-11-17 14:51:00
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