Top UN court orders Azerbaijan to ensure the safety of Nagorno-Karabakh people

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The U.N. top court has issued an order calling on Azerbaijan to ensure that people can safely leave, return to or remain in Nagorno-Karabakh, following the Azerbaijani military’s retaking of the separatist region in September. Armenia asked the International Court of Justice to order so-called provisional measures after Azerbaijan’s army routed ethnic Armenian forces in Nogorno-Karabakh in a 24-hour campaign that began on Sept. 19. The region’s separatist government then agreed to disband itself by the end of the year. More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh.