Azerbaijan sues Armenia over environmental damage

BAKU

Baku has filed a lawsuit against Yerevan at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, alleging extensive environmental damage in Azerbaijan’s territories previously controlled by Armenia.

In a statement on Thursday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry accused Armenia of large-scale deforestation, unsustainable logging, mining and hydropower construction in areas reclaimed by Baku after decades of conflict.

The affected sites include the Basut-Chay State Reserve, a protected forested area near Azerbaijan’s southern border, home to the rare Oriental plane tree.

"Armenia’s actions and negligence have caused severe and irreversible damage to the region’s habitats and species," the ministry stated.

A lawsuit filed on Feb. 12 accuses Armenia of breaching the 1979 Berne Convention, an international treaty for the protection of natural areas in Europe and parts of Africa. Azerbaijan ratified the convention in 2000, while Armenia joined in 2008.

The two countries have waged multiple wars since the late 1980s over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that functioned as a de facto independent entity for three decades.

Baku reclaimed Karabakh in a swift military operation in September 2023, triggering the mass exodus of its Armenian population. Both sides have since expressed willingness to sign a peace treaty, but progress has been slow.

Armenia has yet to comment on the lawsuit. The two nations remain without diplomatic ties, and their 1,000 kilometer (620-mile) border is closed and heavily militarized.