In order to make the voice of Armenian refugees, their expectations and demands heard, the conference “Old and new refugees of Azerbaijani aggression: the past, the present, the future” was launched at the K. Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex, within the framework of which the authorized representatives of the non-governmental organizations that initiated the conference adopted a declaration.
ARMENPRESS presents the text of the declaration.
“Accepted by the refugees of Azerbaijan, Artsakh and Nakhichevan during the conference “Old and new refugees of Azerbaijani aggression: the past, the present, the future” held on April 29, 2023 in Yerevan, we, the authorized representatives of the non-governmental organizations that initiated the conference,
Noting that since the foundation of 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Azerbaijan SSR and the current Republic of Azerbaijan have been conducting and are conducting a xenophobic, especially anti-Armenian, racist policy, which aimed and has the goal of expelling from their ancestral homelands or eliminating hundreds of thousands of our compatriots,
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Considering that in 1988-1991 in Azerbaijani SSR, and in 1992 in the Republic of Azerbaijan the genocidal actions encouraged by the state (Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, forced deportation of Armenians from Northern Karabakh accompanied by pogroms) have not been subjected to any legal investigation,
As a result of the genocidal actions of Azerbaijan, hundreds of thousands of our compatriots immigrated to Armenia, were recognized as refugees, or sought asylum by fleeing to other countries.
Over the past thirty years, numerous complaints addressed to the UN Human Rights Committee regarding the return of Armenian refugees and forcibly displaced persons to their homeland and compensation for their property losses have not received a legal solution and remained unanswered.
Bearing in mind that refugees and forcibly displaced persons have the right to voluntary return to their homeland or the part of the homeland in which their physical security, political and civil rights can be ensured according to a number of international treaties, and the danger for Armenian refugees and displaced persons have not only not disappeared, but also after 1988, hatred against Armenians and threats of reprisals were strengthened by state policy in Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan,
Considering that in 1988-1992 then, during the thirty years, Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian, racist policy only strengthened, and, as a result of the 44-day war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh on September 27, 2020, thousands of Armenians were forcibly displaced from Artsakh and found refuge in Armenia and other countries, and internally displaced persons accumulated in Artsakh, which caused enormous problems related to refugees in the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh,
Considering that the Artsakh refugees of 2020 still do not have a clear legal status, as a result of which they may be excluded from the scope and protection of the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
Taking into account that our compatriots who were forcibly displaced from Azerbaijan and Artsakh and temporarily or permanently lost their permanent home are in serious need of political, legal, social, economic and humanitarian support, and the remaining Armenians in Artsakh are under serious threat of Azerbaijani use of force,
Finding that the authorities of the Republic of Armenia, despite the many requests and demands of refugees from the territories under the control of Azerbaijan and forcibly displaced persons who have taken refuge in Armenia and the public organizations representing their interests, a/ during the 35 years, have conducted an exclusively humanitarian-social policy towards them, b/ did not plan and pursue a legal investigation process for the obviously anti-Armenian, racist policy of Azerbaijan, in our opinion, did not even have a strategy for the issues of the return of refugees to the territory of Azerbaijan’s control and compensation for property losses, c/ did not take into account the political interests and prospects of the refugees sheltered in Armenia, d/ have been very passive, especially in the fight against the falsification of our history and our national identity, the destruction of our cultural heritage, which has intensified in Azerbaijan in the last 35 years,
Seeing that even the agreement in point 7 of the declaration of November 9, 2020 signed between the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and the Prime Minister of Armenia on the new refugees resulted by the aggressive, criminal war of 2020, which says that “Internally displaced persons and refugees return to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring regions under the supervision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees” is not being implemented, while the Azerbaijani authorities are unilaterally implementing it, they are already settling the places abandoned by Armenian refugees with people of unknown identity and origin without any supervision,
We announce:
The Governments of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh should initiate an international political and legal process (including an international judicial process) to call Azerbaijan responsible and demand compensation for the genocidal actions carried out in Azerbaijan (including the Armenian pogroms in the cities of Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad encouraged and organized by the Azerbaijani state).
The protection of violated rights and interests of our compatriots who fled from Azerbaijan and Artsakh and were forcibly displaced should be recognized as a priority of the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh.
All damage inflicted on refugees and forcibly displaced persons shall be subject to adequate, just compensation. The amount and forms of compensation for damages to refugees and forcibly displaced persons should be determined according to internationally recognized principles.
All Armenian refugees and displaced persons, at least those who want to, should be given the opportunity to return to their homeland, a place of their choice, and there should be all guarantees for their physical, political and civil security, including security for their identity.
We propose to the UN Security Council to discuss the policy of Azerbaijan, which constantly gives birth to refugees, and the threats arising from it.
We request and suggest that the international institutions, to which both the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan are members, act as mediators to solve the problem of refugees,
demand the restoration of the Armenian historical-cultural and architectural buildings, churches, the cemeteries at least with historical-cultural value, sacred areas destroyed by Azerbaijan, to restore their falsified identities,
All Artsakh citizens and internally displaced persons who became refugees as a result of the military aggression of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 2020 should be given the opportunity to return to their native places, receiving the real long-term guarantees.
That process can start only after implementing point 6 of the statement of November 9, 2020, signed between the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and the Prime Minister of Armenia, according to which “the Republic of Azerbaijan guarantees the safety of movement of citizens, vehicles and cargo in both directions through the Lachin Corridor”.
In fact, it is already the 6th month that the connection between Artsakh and Armenia through that corridor has been disrupted, which leads to the danger of a humanitarian disaster. At the moment, the population of Artsakh is a hostage of Azerbaijan, and the road for returning of Artsakh refugees and forcibly displaced persons is practically closed.
According to point 7 of the same statement, “Internally displaced persons and refugees return to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring regions under the supervision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.”
We ask the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees if they are aware of the actions of unilateral resettlement of internally displaced persons from Azerbaijan and do they supervise it, do they know who they are resettling, and finally why did Azerbaijan start this process unilaterally?
We ask and suggest to the authorities of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh to start an international legal process, including in relation to the vandalism of our cultural heritage in areas that used to be inhabited by Armenians until 1988, which are currently depopulated.
We request and suggest to the National Academy of Sciences and universities of Armenia to publicize the facts of falsification of books, articles and sources published under the name of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan in one common package, to inform the scientific community, scientific academies and universities of other countries about the facts of the large-scale use of science in Azerbaijan for racist and political goals and ethnophobia. In this matter, we are talking not only about the falsification of the history of the Armenian people, but also about the falsification of the history of the indigenous Caucasian and Iranian-speaking peoples of Azerbaijan and the history of all countries neighboring Azerbaijan, thereby also about the falsification of the history of the same Azerbaijanis.
At the same time we insist that
– without the direct participation of the Republic of Armenia and international support, only through non-governmental and civil initiatives and activities, it is impossible to ensure the protection of the political and civil rights of Armenian refugees and our compatriots who were forcibly displaced from the territory of Artsakh as a result of Azerbaijan’s aggression, and the restoration of their violated rights and interests.
In this context, we urge
The Government of the Republic of Armenia, represented by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, to form a competent state body, organization or a structural unit of the state body dealing with “Refugee Issues”, with the help of which a draft national or state policy strategy or concept on the problems of Armenian refugees will be developed and presented to the interested public for discussion. In the future, that strategy or concept will become part of the state policy conducted by the Republic of Armenia and will be a guideline not only for the Armenian diplomatic bodies, but also for non-governmental organizations and civil initiatives on refugee issues.
We also appeal to the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh with a separate call
to assume full political responsibility for the protection of the interests and rights of not only the refugees who have taken refuge in Artsakh or the citizens of Artsakh expelled from their homeland as a result of the Azerbaijani occupation, but also the interests and rights of all our compatriots who have been deported from Azerbaijan and are de facto refugees.
We appeal to international organizations, in particular the UN Security Council, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the authorities of the OSCE Minsk Co-chair countries, the heads of accredited diplomatic missions in Armenia, to contribute to the solution of the issues raised by us and to involve us in effective cooperation in that context.
With a special appeal, we call on our compatriots who emigrated from Azerbaijan, Artsakh and Nakhichevan at different times and took refuge in different countries of the world, their descendants, as well as to non-governmental organizations that have been dealing with Armenian refugee issues for years, suggesting to unite on one platform and consolidate our efforts and resources to ensure the effective struggle for the protection of the rights and interests of our compatriot refugees and displaced persons.
We hereby announce the goal of creating a common platform for the realization of this idea.”
