Artsakh Armenians Warn Yerevan Against Dropping Lawsuits Against Baku

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Exiled activists from Nagorno-Karabakh have threatened to sue the Armenian government if it does withdraw its lawsuits filed against Azerbaijan since the 2020 Karabakh war.

The government announced plans to do so after accepting last week Azerbaijan’s proposals regarding the two remaining articles of a draft peace treaty that were not yet agreed upon by the two sides. In particular, Yerevan agreed to the mutual withdrawal of international lawsuits filed by the two South Caucasus countries against each other. It had previously voiced reservations about such a move demanded by the Azerbaijani side.

Artak Beglaryan, Karabakh’s former premier and human rights ombudsman now based in Yerevan, condemned at the weekend the apparent Armenian concession to Baku as a further blow to Karabakh’s population that fled the region following Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive. He said it means that “the Armenian authorities will equally share responsibility for violating our rights and eliminating opportunities to protect our rights.”

Beglaryan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he and other Karabakh Armenians are therefore planning to file individual lawsuits, presumably with the European Court of Human Rights, against Armenia and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in particular.

He said they would not do so if the peace treaty finalized by Baku and Yerevan addressed the issues of the release of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani “war crimes,” the Karabakh Armenians’ right to safely return to their homeland and protection of their properties and cultural heritage.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Friday that the treaty will also commit the two sides to “not to file in the future claims regarding issues that existed between the parties prior to its signing.” Beglaryan decried this provision as well, saying that it deprives the Karabakh refugees of legal avenues of fighting for their safe repatriation.

“The Armenian authorities are closing the page on Artsakh not only politically but also legally, and it can be said that the possibilities of our return are nullified,” he said.

The Armenian government has brought four cases against Azerbaijan in the ECHR and another one in the International Court of Justice. It accuses Azerbaijan of committing war crimes, violating the rights of Armenian prisoners, occupying Armenian territory and forcibly displacing Karabakh’s population. Baku has likewise taken Yerevan to these international tribunals, alleging various violations of international law.

Yeghishe Kirakosyan, the top lawyer representing the government in those tribunals, resigned on March 6 in apparent anticipation of the latest developments. Kirakosian insisted in January that the Armenian lawsuits do not preclude peace between the two countries.

Contrary to government pledges, Armenia has still not filed any cases against Azerbaijan at another tribunal, the International Criminal Court. Bringing Azerbaijan to justice for its war crimes and preventing more Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia was the main official rationale for Yerevan’s accession to the ICC completed in February 2024 amid strong Western encouragement.

The ICC issued in 2023 an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes allegedly committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Pashinian’s critics say the real purpose of his decision to submit to The Hague court’s jurisdiction was to please the West and embarrass Moscow, rather than take further legal action against Baku.