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Forcibly displaced Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh call for UN peacekeepers to ensure return
4 minute read
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The forcibly displaced Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh who had to leave their homes as a result of the 2020 war have released a statement in response to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements made after his meeting with the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs in Moscow.
“We, the NGOs representing the interests of several tens of thousands Armenians who were forcibly displaced from the Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh’s Shushi, Martuni, Askeran, Hadrut, Martakert, Karvajar and Kashatagh regions and have become refugees, are perplexed and angered by the ideas voiced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after his meeting with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on July 26 in Moscow.
“The Russian Foreign Minister is equalizing the Armenian refugees who escaped genocide in Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated regions and the Republic of Artsakh and the Azerbaijanis who left Armenia as a result of segregation of peoples.
“We once again remind the Russian authorities that the Azerbaijanis who left Armenia had the chance to exchange their homes, transport their property and receive compensation from the Republic of Armenia.
“Unlike the Azerbaijanis, the Armenian refugees barely survived genocide, while those who didn’t manage or didn’t want to leave their homes where gruesomely murdered in their homes or backyards,” reads the statement.
The forcibly displaced Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh emphasized that their right to return is enshrined under clause 7 of the 2020 trilateral statement between the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Russian President and the Azerbaijani President, which says ‘internally displaced persons and refugees shall return to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.’
“Pursuant to the abovementioned, we call on the international community, the UN to create a proper format for discussions on ensuring our return, and include representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. UN Peacekeepers should ensure our return, otherwise we can’t have security guarantees. We are also convinced that in the current phase of the conflict, there is no alternative to direct negotiations between government officials of Artsakh and Azerbaijan republics, mediated by international guarantors. We call on the Russian Federation to stem its official stance from this starting point. We call on the Prime Minister of Armenia to raise our issue in all international formats. We call on the entire international community to support the protection of our legitimate rights,” the statement concludes.
