HRC 53rd Session: Agenda item 3 – Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons - Embassy of Armenia to Switzerland and Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN office at Geneva

HRC 53rd Session: Agenda item 3 – Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons

04 July, 2023

Delivered by Ms. Lilit Toutkhalian, Minister Extraordinary and Envoy Plenipotentiary

President,

Armenia thanks the Special Rapporteur for the report.

We agree that States are primarily responsible for the
prevention of internal displacement and the coordinated implementation of protection and
solutions for internally displaced persons. All this comes with complex human rights, humanitarian, development, healthcare, social issue. However, it is equally important to stress the cases where persons become internally displaced because of an aggression from neighboring states.

In the most recent case 7.500 Armenian civilians living in bordering regions with Azerbaijan were displaced due to the letter’s encroachment into and occupation of our sovereign territory.

In 2020 too almost all civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh was displaced again due to the aggression of Azerbaijan. 40.000 of them do not have a chance up until now to return to their ancestral homes.

Armenia has been expressing its grave concern over the ethno-demographic engineering activities of Azerbaijan in the ethnically cleansed Armenian towns and villages. The recent announcements of new mosques to be built in such emptied ancient Armenian centers as Hadrut and Kʻarin Tak are forewarning on the illegal transfer and settlement of foreign population.

We remind that this is strictly prohibited under the IHL.

I thank you.

Right of reply

President,

Armenia exercises its right of reply to refute the allegations of Azerbaijan.

There is no hierarchy of suffering, and all types of displacement should be delt in a victim-centered manner. We know it well as Armenia has been affected by a long history of unaddressed waves of displacement and land dispossession. Around 400.000 Armenians were displaced due to the massacres and attacks of Azerbaijan in 1990s.

In 2020 Azerbaijan unleashed a new aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, perpetrating despicable atrocity crimes and forcing almost all its civilian population out. Several international human rights watchdogs, such as the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International documented in detail the violations of IHL and IHRL against Armenian population.

Time and again, the Azerbaijani war of aggression made obvious the latter’s discriminatory strategies employed to displace by force indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku takes all possible measure to trivialize and legitimize the ethnic cleansing it perpetrated and to prevent the return of the forcibly displaced population to their ancestral homes. This is a conflict-induced displacement par excellence, accompanied by violations of housing, land and property rights as part of the discriminatory strategies employed to displace indigenous Armenian population and to prevent their return.

For many decades Azerbaijan spared no effort to induce displacement of the Armenians as their way of addressing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is indicative that there are no Armenians living in the territories that fell under the control of Azerbaijan. Few civilians who didn’t manage to evacuate, especially disabled people and older persons were tortured and executed.

The tripartite statement of 9 November 2020 established the ceasefire that could have laid grounds for further work. However, Azerbaijan has continuously hindered the UNHCR and other humanitarian missions of the UN to the conflict zone. Azerbaijan aims at preventing the international community from registering the atrocities and human rights violations it continues to commit.

The six months long blockade of Lachin corridor and the siege of Nagorno-Karabakh follows the same policy of ethnic cleansing of indigenous Armenian population. The previous practice leaves no doubt that Azerbaijan is ready to commit violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law to meet its objectives.

There are all early warning signs of looming atrocities. It is the duty of the international community to prevent them from happening.

I thank you.

President,

We exercise our second right of reply to Azerbaijan.

Hate speech represents the underlying cause of violence, conflicts and atrocity crimes. Unfortunately, in our region we continue to witness the incitement of identity-based hatred propagated at the highest political level of Azerbaijan. The international and regional organizations have extensively documented the state-led policies of hatred, construction of distorted historical narratives, denying very existence of the Armenian people in their ancestral homeland, glorification of hate crime perpetrators, which constitute a serious threat to the peace and security in the region.

The Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other international human rights watchdogs have reported on numerous cases of torture, cruel or degrading treatment and psychological pressure on PoWs and civilian captives committed by Azerbaijan, as well as egregious instances of extrajudicial killings of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia strongly condemns the gross violations of the ceasefire by the armed forces of Azerbaijan in the border areas of Armenia and Nagorno- Karabakh, which have adversely affected all human rights. In this regard, it should be underscored that since May of 2021, Azerbaijan invaded the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and occupied an area of more than 45 square kilometres resulting in gross human rights violations and war crimes.

Mobilization of early warning and prevention capacities across the United Nations system and strong interagency presence of the UN on the ground may serve as a deterrent factor for the looming atrocity crimes.

I thank you.

MFA RA
official website

Dual citizenship

Electronic visa

Visa applications