HRC 55th Session: Item 3: Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to food

07 March, 2024

Delivered by Ms. Nelli Petrosyan, Human Rights Officer

President,

Armenia welcomes the Special Rapporteur and thanks for the report.

We thank the SR for joining other UN mandate holders in dispatching a joint communication to Azerbaijan on the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh. It expressed concern in particular that a “prolonged blockade of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to the outside world can lead to dire humanitarian consequences on the population and violate their right to food, health and education, especially against children, persons with disabilities and older persons”.

However, in a sheer defiance to numerous calls of the international community, and the explicit binding order of the ICJ, Azerbaijan kept Nagorno-Karabakh under the siege for almost 10 months. ICRC reported that no food and medicine were reaching people. The inhumane siege ended up with a new military attack by Azerbaijan and forced displacement of more than 100.000 people. The UNHCR reported from the ground that they were reaching Armenia exhausted, tired, frightened and hungry.

As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in this regard, the voices of victims and their families including those who fled their homes in September 2023 must be genuinely heard.

I thank you.

1st Right of Reply

ID with SR on the right to food

ID with SR in the field of cultural rights

Madame Vice-President,

We exercise our right of reply to Azerbaijan.

The European Parliament strongly condemned “Azerbaijan’s continued policy of erasing and denying the Armenian cultural heritage”.

The Human Rights Watch referred to the deliberate attack against the Holy Savior Cathedral in the city of Shushi, as a possible war crime.

Special Procedure Mandate Holders issued a communication to Azerbaijan requesting information about any investigation into this attack. They underscored “that the Cathedral built in 1888 is one of the largest Armenian churches in the world.” They especially sought an indication if those responsible for the attack on the church would be held accountable in accordance with international law. This never happened. Moreover, Azerbaijan announced an amnesty for all those who participated in the war against Nagorno-Karabakh conveniently putting to rest even the theoretical possibilities for accountability.

Among numerous examples, the 200-year-old Saint John the Baptist church in Shushi was destroyed. The 18th-century cemetery of the Sghnakh village and the early 19th-century cemetery in Mets Tagher have been bulldozed. Armenian gravestones have reportedly been used for the construction of a road. In October 2022, the satellite image showed the destruction of Saint Sargis Church in Hadrud. Azerbaijan massively removes crosses from the churches and monasteries in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The purpose of the destruction of cultural heritage is to deprive indigenous Armenian population of places of worship, as well as to erase the history of their presence and claim a monopoly or monoethnic identity. This policy continues for decades. The Guardian newspaper called it, the worst cultural genocide of the 21^st century.

Azerbaijan has never made a secret out of its intention to use the cultural destruction and misappropriation as a mean of ethno-demographic engineering of Nagorno-Karabakh and completely distorting its cultural identity. Particularly the publicly pronounced plans for construction of new mosques in Hadrut and Karin Tak villages, which never had any Azerbaijani population.

We urge the continuous attention and reaction of the UN human rights machinery to this policy.

I thank you.

2nd Right of Reply

Madame Vice-President,

My delegation asked for the second right of reply to refute the allegations made by Azerbaijan.

The blockade and starvation, which was imposed by Azerbaijan on the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, had one purpose: the ethnic cleansing of the local Armenian population.

First, due to the blockade, food was rationed and residents used vouchers for limited supplies of essential products. Supermarkets and grocery stores were empty. Severe shortage of food and medicine had a particularly devastating impact on the most vulnerable segments of the population, sharply increasing death rates, including infant mortality rates and miscarriages. Moreover, Azerbaijan continuously targeted civilians engaged in agricultural work, reinforcing its clear intention to impose starvation on the population.

Second, despite a multitude of clearly detectable early warning signs and calls for intervention, in September of last year the use of deadly military action against the innocent civilian population resulted in forcible displacement and ethnic cleansing of the entire indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result, Armenians were driven out of their ancestral land, leaving behind their homes, their schools, their churches, their places of worship, the graveyards of their loved ones, and thousands of Armenian cultural and religious heritage sites.

Third, Azerbaijan engaged in ethno-demographic engineering in Nagorno-Karabakh through changing toponyms, ethnic composition of the region and massive cultural misappropriation and destruction.

Finally, Azerbaijan’s territorial claims continue to pose eminent threats to the Republic of Armenia. Azerbaijan officially announced that it will not withdraw from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia occupied in May 2021 and September 2022.

Thousands of hectares of protected lands belonging to 31 communities of Armenia were occupied by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, be they agricultural lands, forests, cattle barns or water resources. The residents are unable to use and cultivate pastures, grasslands and arable lands, which affects their ability to maintain a viable family income and infringe upon their right to food.

I thank you

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