Azerbaijan Must Answer for the Rights of Displaced Armenians: Avagimyan at the OSCE

On October 12, Ruzanna Avagimyan, lawyer and attorney at the Union of Informed Citizens NGO, delivered a speech at the OSCE ODIHR Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, addressing the forced displacement of Armenians by Azerbaijan, the depopulation of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the politicization of the issue of displaced persons’ rights.

In her speech, Avagimyan outlined the historical context of violence against Armenians, emphasizing that Azerbaijan must be held accountable for the rights, property, and compensation of displaced Armenians, and that these issues cannot be replaced by territorial claims against Armenia.

“Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

On the previous session Azerbaijani representative promised democratic elections in Karabakh. But the Armenians in Karabakh already had competitive elections. Today, neither its Armenian population nor competitive elections remain there.

Three years ago, over 100,000 Armenians were forced from their homeland by Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing, leaving their entire lives behind.

Today, Azerbaijan invokes displacements dating back 35 years, to advance territorial claims against Armenia, while omitting up to half a million Armenians forced from Azerbaijan.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Armenians faced massacres in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku, and later in Maragha. Azerbaijani forces murdered civilians. Nothing like that ever happened to Azerbaijanis in Armenia.

This unpunished pattern of violence paved the way for what followed: months of blockade, severe food and medicine shortages, and the 2023 offensive.

Labeling exodus as voluntary, ignores the ultimatum: leave or die.

So, Azerbaijan organized a massacre of Armenians in late 1980s, which led to exchange of refugees between soviet Armenia and soviet Azerbaijan back in those days. And now, after execution of another ethnic cleansing, they invoke displaced Azerbaijanis to advance territorial claims against Armenia on this platform.

This session concerns displaced people’s rights. I urge participating States to reject its use to advance territorial claims against Armenia, and to demand answers from Azerbaijan on displaced Armenians’ rights, property and compensation.

Azerbaijan’s representatives must answer for the Armenians their State deprived of their home. Territorial claims against Armenia are no substitute for those answers.

One may ask, why are they doing so? Because Azerbaijan is not interested in building sustainable peace. Like any dictatorship, Azerbaijani government needs a foreign enemy.

I thank you”.