REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsTHE HAGUE, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Judges at the World Court on Friday ordered Azerbaijan to let ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh in September return, and to keep the Armenians remaining in the enclave safe, as part of a set of emergency measures.
Azerbaijan in September recaptured the region, then controlled by its ethnic Armenian majority despite being internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
The lightning offensive, after decades of enmity between Baku and Yerevan and a nine-month blockade of essential supplies by Baku, prompted the mass exodus of most of the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians to neighbouring Armenia.
Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing and asked the International Court of Justice, as the World Court is formally known, to issue emergency measures aimed at protecting the rights of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said it had already pledged to ensure all residents’ safety and security, regardless of national or ethnic origin, and that it had not forced the ethnic Armenians to leave Karabakh.
Persons:
Irakli, Joan Donoghue, Stephanie van den Berg, Nailia, Andrew Heavens, Hugh Lawson, William Maclean
Organizations:
REUTERS, HAGUE, International Court of Justice, Thomson
Locations:
Nagorno, Karabakh, Kornidzor, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Baku, Yerevan