Refugee NGOs demand from the international community to provide security guarantees for their return to Artsakh

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS. 13 non-governmental organizations of refugees from Azerbaijan SSR, Nakhichevan and Artsakh issued a statement demanding the international community, international organizations, and partner countries to provide security guarantees and introduce appropriate mechanisms to develop return conditions for refugees and forcibly displaced persons. ARMENPRESS reports, they also demand to create the necessary conditions to set and provide compensation for the lost immovable and movable property by Azerbaijan for refugees and their descendants, and to force Azerbaijan to fulfill its international obligations and compensate for the losses incurred to the families of refugees and their descendants.

The statement reads, "We, the refugees from Azerbaijan SSR, Nakhichevan and Artsakh, reaffirm the following.

• Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were forcibly displaced, scattered around the world, and became refugees due to the genocide committed against Armenians in various cities of the Azerbaijan SSR: Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad/Gandzak in 1987-1992. Until now, the international community has not given an assessment of what happened against the Armenians in the territory of Azerbaijan, the organizers and perpetrators of the crimes have not been identified and condemned.
• The UN recognized in 2021 the 26,750 people who arrived in the Republic of Armenia from Artsakh as a result of the large-scale aggression starting on September 27, 2020, as persons with a status equal to a refugee. And the 120,000 Armenians in the territory of the Republic of Artsakh are today under a total blockade by dictatorial Azerbaijan, being deprived of daily security, the right to free movement,
• According to paragraph 7 of the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020, internally displaced persons and refugees can return to their homes under UN supervision. However, Azerbaijan obstructs the entry of the UN and other international structures to Artsakh, while in violation of the 6th point of the same declaration, Azerbaijan has also blocked the Lachin Corridor, which is the only road of life of Artsakh Armenians.
• Azerbaijan settles the occupied territories of Artsakh with people of unknown identity and origin, which calls into question and undermines the security of Armenians in the region, the political efforts of international structures to establish peace,
• Just as Nakhichevan, which was once inhabited by Armenians, was depopulated under the conditions of the establishment of full jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, and the Armenian cultural heritage was destroyed, so now the indigenous heritage is being destroyed in the depopulated regions of Artsakh.
• The democratic Republic of Artsakh cannot live under the rule of dictatorial Azerbaijan. its result will be the annihilation of Armenians. The situation is beyond being ominous.

Based on the above, we demand that the international community, international organizations, partner countries

• provide security guarantees and introduce appropriate mechanisms to develop return conditions for refugees and forcibly displaced persons;
• create the necessary conditions for determining and providing compensation by Azerbaijan for the lost immovable and movable property of refugees and their descendants, and force Azerbaijan to fulfill its international obligations and compensate the families of refugees and their descendants for the losses suffered,
• respect the fact that the people of Artsakh are self-determined through a referendum, do not compromise the right to life and do not subordinate it to the principle of territorial integrity, be guided by the fundamental rights and freedoms of peoples,

Prevent the cultural genocide in the occupied territories of Artsakh with practical steps."