Freedom House, together with the International Partnership for Human Rights, the Democracy Development Fund, the Vanadzor Office of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, the Foundation for the Development and Protection of Rights, the NGO Protection of Rights without Borders, and Truth Hounds published a report “Why are there no Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?”
The report was discussed during the panel session of the Democratic Forum held in Yerevan on July 1, during which the aforementioned human rights organizations presented a summary of the report. Anna Melikyan, a representative of the “Protection of Rights without Borders” NGO, gave a legal assessment of the events that took place in Artsakh in 2020-2023: it was a genocide, which was carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities at the state level.
Judith Dufour, head of the International Partnership for Human Rights, noted in her speech that there are enough facts to apply to the International Criminal Court with articles on crimes against humanity and war crimes. Mrs. Dufour, however, noted that it would be easier to apply to international courts and achieve significant success if the rights of the Artsakh people were represented by the Armenian government, which joined the United Nations Rome Statute.
The presentation of the report took place during the democratic forum held in Yerevan, in which Prime Minister Pashinyan also participated. During the forum, emphasis was mainly placed on gender and other democratic issues, which were certainly important, but in the current situation, it seemed to be aimed at hiding the main topic: “Why are there no Armenians left in Artsakh?”
The Freedom House, which published a rather harsh report on the situation of human rights and democracy in Armenia this year, tried to show that democratic reforms do not imply giving up the protection of national and human rights. On the contrary: democratic mechanisms are meant to protect these rights to the maximum extent. And the passionate attitude of the Armenian government towards Artsakh and the people of Artsakh is anti-democratic.
The report was published at an unpleasant time for Armenia, when the government is targeting the people of Artsakh from the highest positions. Even the Prime Minister of Armenia announced that the people of Artsakh, listening to their pro-Russian elites, came to Yerevan to change the government here.
Users of social networks, guided from one center, accuse the people of Artsakh that they could not keep their land and came to surrender Armenia as well.
The absurdity of such accusations is astounding. The people of Artsakh say that they never imagined that they would have to explain such simple things in Armenia, or “justify” for not dying in Artsakh and being saved from the genocide.
The report of Freedom House states that “the Azerbaijani state methodically imposed living conditions that were aimed either at destroying the Armenian population over time or making it impossible for them to stay and survive.” That is why there are no Armenians left in Artsakh.
In Armenia, they received asylum, temporary protection and minimal means of living. However, they were completely deprived of the opportunity to present their rights at the political level. The government of Armenia rejects the self-government of the people of Artsakh, says that there is only one government in Armenia, but speaks only of humanitarian and social problems, consciously ignoring the political and legal problems of the people of Artsakh.
Mrs. Dufour hints that even having such weighty arguments, such as the report of the world’s influential human rights organizations, the RA government does not want to present them to international courts. Moreover, RA NA Speaker Alen Simonyan did not rule out that Armenia will withdraw the claims already submitted to international courts, if Azerbaijan does the same.
Naira Hayrumyan