Armenia urges UN court to order Azerbaijan to end road block

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Armenia is pleading with judges of the United Nations’ highest court on Monday to order Azerbaijan to break up a road blockade that is isolating the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the action part of an act of “ethnic cleansing.” Monday’s hearing at the International Court of Justice comes amid rising tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia just over two years after they ended a war that killed about 6,800 soldiers and displaced around 90,000 civilians. Nagorno-Karabakh 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. Armenia wants the court to call on Azerbaijan to end a blockade that threatens food supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 people.