Refusal of Armenia’s complaints against Azerbaijan in international courts will cause irreparable damage to Armenia and the Armenian people – 2024-05-12 05:43:05

Rejection of Armenia’s complaints against Azerbaijan in international courts will cause irreparable damage to the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people, experts assure me.

“The statements of the highest authorities of the Republic of Armenia about the possibility of withdrawing Armenia’s complaints against Azerbaijan in international courts and other structures raise serious concerns. such steps will cause irreparable damage to the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people.

In this regard, we emphasize the following.

1. Those statements made at the highest level of power are absolutely inadmissible.

2. Complaints against Azerbaijan have a strategic goal of ensuring international responsibility for the violations of the rights of the Armenians of Armenia and Artsakh, and the Armenian people in general. They are indispensable tools for the protection of our collective and individual rights and international justice.

3. Without international justice, it is not possible to achieve a stable and lasting peace, as well as to prevent new aggressions by Azerbaijan directly against the Republic of Armenia and its people in the form of occupation of the sovereign territories of Armenia and other crimes.

4. Those processes in international courts are also necessary steps for the investigation of crimes against the people of Artsakh and the protection of collective rights.

They are of the utmost importance in terms of the collective return of the Artsakh people, the protection of spiritual and cultural heritage, public and private property in Artsakh, and the provision of a safe and dignified life there after the return by guaranteeing international protection mechanisms.

5. Moreover, with the presented complaints and lawsuits, the Republic of Armenia undertook to protect the rights of the victims of Azerbaijani crimes, including the property and other rights of forcibly displaced Artsakh Armenians, in international courts.

As a result, people have refrained from submitting individual complaints to international courts, and in case of Armenia’s rejection of international means of legal protection and moving them to the political level, there is no guarantee that Azerbaijan will fulfill these demands.

Therefore, abandoning the claims presented by RA will inevitably lead to the impossibility of implementing these important international instruments for the protection of victims’ rights, based on the formal requirements of those instruments.

6. In addition to interstate complaints, many individual complaints are also presented in international courts, and if they are abandoned, the fate of individual complaints will be uncertain.

In this case, the force of individual complaints will either be significantly weakened, or the international court can simply combine them with interstate complaints, which the country refuses, and reject them.

As a result, people will be deprived of international judicial protection of their rights due to the unacceptable political decision of the Government.

7. Complaints and demands in international courts are irreplaceable for Armenian diplomacy. Refusal of international demands will cause irreparable damage to RA in the international arena, undermining the foundations of diplomatic resistance.

8. The Azerbaijani authorities have been conducting a policy of deep racism and hatred against Armenians for years, starting from Armenia and Artsakh to the Diaspora.

Not only has Azerbaijan never tried to protect any Armenian or even prevent the violation of any Armenian’s rights, but at the state level, often under the guise of “peace”, it has encouraged and encouraged any harm to Armenians: murders, tortures, kidnappings, arbitrary imprisonment and captivity, mental suffering. etc.

9. Moreover, the genocidal policy of the current Azerbaijani government has always deepened the enmity after each crime and created the basis for new crimes. In this way, growing threats have emerged against the collective existence of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people in general.

10. Added to this is the fact that the government of Armenia always unilaterally satisfies the demands of Azerbaijan, in the vain hope that Azerbaijan will stop, but this is not happening and will not happen.

11. The government of Azerbaijan never had real intentions of peace. Their international claims against Armenia were only an artificial, purely mirror, step to mislead the outside world, provide a veil and cover up their own crimes.

12. The refusal of the Armenian government from the lawsuits filed against Azerbaijan in international courts will legitimize the policy of Azerbaijani hatred and serious crimes against the Armenian people, will give rise to new violations and crimes of our rights.

13. Taking into account the above, we strongly request the authorities of Armenia to refrain from statements and actions to withdraw from the interstate complaints presented against Azerbaijan in international courts.

Moreover, we demand to present new international court claims with all possible conventions, including by applying to the International Criminal Court with the request to apply criminal punishment for the crime of forced displacement of the people of Artsakh.

Gegham Stepanyan, Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Republic

Arman Tatoyan, former human rights defender of the Republic of Armenia

Artak Beglaryan, former human rights defender of Artsakh Republic

Siranush Sahakyan, head of the NGO “Center for International and Comparative Law”.

Ara Ghazaryan, founder and head of “Ara Ghazaryan” law office, international expert.