By Paul Vartan Sookiasian
In a move that has sent geopolitical shockwaves, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for alleged war crimes, most notably for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Described as the most significant decision since the court’s founding in 2002, never before has the leader of a western-aligned state been charged. The charges stemming from the conflict in Gaza bring renewed calls for similar charges against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
All 124 members of the ICC, including Armenia, are now obligated by treaty to arrest Netanyahu if he were to arrive in their country. The ICC has no police force and no means of carrying out the arrest itself.
In addition to Netanyahu, warrants were issued for Israel’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif. This puts Netanyahu in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin as international fugitives wanted by the court, and will likely push Israel into further isolation.
Netanyahu denounced what he called the ”absurd and false accusations,” and indicated that Israel would continue fighting in Gaza to protect its citizens.
Armenia joined the ICC in February of this year, and the court’s jurisdiction is effective back to May 2021, the start of Azerbaijan’s repeated armed attacks into Armenian territory during which its military was recorded committing atrocities.
One of the charges against Netanyahu is using starvation as a weapon of war, similar to accusations made against Aliyev during last year’s months long blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh that culminated in an attack against and the ethnic cleansing of the entire population.
Commenting on today’s development, the U.S.-based nonprofit the Center for Truth and Justice, which petitioned the ICC in April to investigate Aliyev for genocide, posted this statement to the social media platform X:
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