Azerbaijan files application to European court over ‘gross violations’ by Armenia

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijan filed an application on Wednesday to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over “gross violations” of human rights by Armenia against the Azerbaijani people in the Karabakh region.

“Azerbaijan has submitted evidence of numerous acts of deliberate and willful destruction of property, including hundreds of civilian homes and other residential properties, during Armenia’s withdrawal from the town of Lachin and two neighboring villages between May and August 2022,” an Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry statement said.

The statement further said that Armenia did nothing to prevent widespread destruction in the region despite having control of these areas, adding that evidence show that Armenian officials “actively participated in what has been described as a ‘scorched earth’ policy.”

It also said that “systematic human rights violations” were committed on the Lachin road, where Armenia’s military is “continuing to plant landmines and booby-trap civilian homes in the areas from which Armenia was required to withdraw” under the November 2020 cease-fire agreement.

“This includes landmines manufactured by Armenia in 2021 that were transported into Azerbaijan through the Lachin road, in direct violation of the Trilateral Statement,” the statement added.

It also underlines that Armenia’s policy “continues to prevent displaced families and communities from returning to their former homes and land over thirty years since they were forced to flee as a result of Armenia’s illegal occupation.”

“Azerbaijan is seeking compensation, reparation, restitutio in integrum (restitution to the original condition), costs, expenses and further or other relief for the damage suffered following its gross human rights violations. Azerbaijan will continue its efforts to hold the Government of Armenia to account for its ongoing and deliberate breaches of international human rights law,” the statement added.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, in 44 days of fighting, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation. The Russian-brokered agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.