HRC 51st Session Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination: Delivered by Mrs. Zoya Stepanyan, First Secretary

20 September, 2022

President,

We welcome the Working Group and thank it for the report it presented. Armenia has always supported this mandate, which was unequivocally manifested in our vote on its renewal. We, furthermore, responded positively to its request for a country visit to Armenia this October. We are looking forward to its successful completion.

Armenia concurs that a victim-centered approach for the access to justice and remedy is necessary. It is especially important in the context of the need to fill gaps in accountability. Indeed, reliance on private military and security companies (PMSCs) in large-scale military engagements provides States with plausible deniability for their crimes.

Azerbaijan’s employment of the “Sadat International Defense Consultancy” has been characterized by pervasive secrecy and opacity impeding the identification of perpetrators. Thus, the climate of impunity and corruption continues its incessant rein over the South Caucasus and further discourages investigation of this case.

Armenia also recalls that the “Sadat International Defense Consultancy” had enlisted and coerced individuals from Syria to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh, and thus facilitated the enrichment of the Syrian criminal militias that aligned themselves with this PMSC and its enablers.

I thank you.

Right of reply

President,

Yesterday, while addressing this body Azerbaijan had an audacity to put forward an allegation about mercenaries. During all wars against Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijan employed both mercenaries and terrorist fighters, thousands of paid criminals or radicalized elements motivated by profit and by hatred. Large body of evidence of participation of mujahidins in the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh in 1990s has been confirmed by international experts for numerous times. In 2020, in the era of social media and ICTs, the whole cycle of recruitment, transfer and deployment of thousands of foreign fighters from the war throne regions of the Middle East has been done loosely, without making much secret. Those facts were confirmed by several states at the highest level as well as by the Working Group itself. To all calls for accountability Azerbaijan opted to reply by self-produced and disseminated “report” which does not provide a single credible source relying mostly on self-invented Azerbaijani or Turkish “information”. Moreover, apart from being abusive piece of defamation amount to offense, the so-called report publicizes personal data of hundreds of Armenians and non-Armenians, including their telephone numbers, photos and other personal information in stark violation of international law.

Mr. President,

Armenia is resolute in its demand for justice. Azerbaijan and its accomplices who inflicted the scourge of mercanarism and radicalization to our region will be held accountable.

MFA RA
official website

Dual citizenship

Electronic visa

Visa applications