THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The United Nations’ highest courtroom ordered Azerbaijan on Wednesday to “take all steps at its disposal” to permit free motion of site visitors alongside the one highway between Armenia and the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh area in Azerbaijan that has been blocked by protesters in a transfer that has additional fueled tensions between the 2 international locations.

The legally binding 13-2 ruling by the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice outcomes from the newest authorized skirmishes in a long-running feud between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Every nation filed a case with the courtroom accusing the opposite of breaching a conference geared toward stamping out racial discrimination.

Wednesday’s ruling on the blocked highway referred to as the Lachin Hall got here simply over two years after the neighboring nations ended a warfare in Nagorno-Karabakh that killed about 6,800 troopers and displaced round 90,000 civilians.

The distant and rugged area is inside Azerbaijan however had been below the management of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia for the reason that finish of a separatist warfare in 1994.

A cease-fire brokered by Russia ended the 2020 warfare and granted Azerbaijan management over components of Nagorno-Karabakh in addition to adjoining land occupied by Armenians. Russia despatched a peacekeeping power of two,000 troops to keep up order, together with controlling the Lachin Hall.

Armenia’s attorneys stated throughout courtroom hearings final month that the roadblock arrange late final 12 months by protesters claiming to be environmental activists was a part of an Azerbaijani marketing campaign the Armenians labeled “ethnic cleaning.”

Worldwide Courtroom of Justice President Joan E. Donoghue stated the proof introduced by Armenia established that the blockade “has impeded the switch of individuals of Armenian nationwide and ethnic origin hospitalized in Nagorno-Karabakh to medical amenities in Armenia for pressing medical care.”

It additionally interrupted provides to Nagorno-Karabakh of “important items inflicting shortages of meals, drugs and different lifesaving medical provides,” Donoghue stated.

Of their majority choice, the courtroom’s judges ordered Azerbaijan to “take all measures at its disposal to make sure unimpeded motion of individuals, automobiles and cargo alongside the Lachin Hall in each instructions.”

In an announcement, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated the courtroom’s ruling “took observe of Azerbaijan’s illustration that Azerbaijan has and undertakes to proceed to take all steps inside its energy and at its disposal to ensure secure motion alongside the Lachin highway.”

The assertion stated Azerbaijan “will proceed to uphold the rights of all folks below worldwide regulation and to carry Armenia to account for its ongoing and historic grave violations of human rights.”

The courtroom, in its ruling, stated that Armenia’s request for judges to order Azerbaijan to “stop its orchestration and help” of the protests on the Lachin Hall was “not warranted.”

The judges rejected Armenia’s request for an order for Azerbaijan to not block fuel provides to Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that Armenian attorneys didn’t present sufficient proof to again their declare that Azerbaijan was disrupting the availability.

The judges additionally declined a request by Azerbaijan for an order to cease or stop Armenia from laying landmines and booby traps in areas of the area to which Azerbaijani residents are to return.

The world courtroom ordered each nations a little bit over a 12 months in the past to forestall discrimination towards each other’s residents within the aftermath of the warfare and to not additional irritate the battle.

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Aida Sultanova in London contributed.