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  • Chingiz Asgarov: "One Of The Significant Results Of Our Work Can Be

    CHINGIZ ASGAROV: "ONE OF THE SIGNIFICANT RESULTS OF OUR WORK CAN BE THE INTERNATIONAL COURT'S RECOGNITION OF THE FACT OF THE OCCUPATION OF ONE FIFTH PART OF AZERBAIJANI LANDS BY ARMENIA"

    APA
    Jan 12 2012
    Azerbaijan

    Baku - APA. Interview with Chingiz Asgarov, Azerbaijan's authorized
    representative at the European Court of Human Rights

    - On January 9, 2012, the European Court of Human Rights declared
    admissible the application of the Azerbaijani internally displaced
    persons v. Armenia, and also the application of the Armenian refugee
    v. Azerbaijan. Could you give detailed information about these
    applications?

    -In April, 2005, Elkhan Chiragov and five other internally displaced
    persons from Azerbaijan's Lachin region filed an application against
    Armenia to the European Court. The Azerbaijani government used the
    right to attend the hearing as the third party. This was one of the
    thousand applications filed by Azerbaijani citizens against Armenia.

    Approximately, a year and a half later a citizen of Armenia filed
    an application against Azerbaijan. The applicant claimed that he had
    lived in Gulustan village of Azerbaijan's Goranboy region by 1992 and
    was obliged to leave for Yerevan as a result of the military conflict.

    The date and text of the application shows that this is the reaction
    of the Armenian side to Azerbaijan's activity at the European Court.

    Though this claim "was a little late", the European Court started
    considering the applications simultaneously. On September 15, 2010,
    open hearings were held in Strasbourg.

    Members of the British human rights organization represent the IDPs
    from Lachin on their initiative.

    Under the instructions of the Head of State, the Azerbaijani government
    did much to gather evidence, outstanding international experts on
    human rights were also involved in the process. As the lawyers of the
    applicants did not have opportunities to gather necessary materials,
    all the main documents were gathered and submitted to the European
    Court by the Azerbaijani government.

    - What issues do the European Court's decisions touch?

    - The decisions made by the European Court on January 9, 2012 have an
    interim character. The court considers only the admissibility of the
    suits in this phase. The essence of the issue and the backgrounds,
    which are significant for identification of the violation of Human
    Rights Convention, will be considered in the next phase.

    The comments on the facts, the theory, are very important in both
    decisions along with the legal conclusions. The decisions say that
    as a result of military actions, Armenians occupied not only the
    territory of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region, but also seven
    nearby regions, territories of which are two times larger than Nagorno
    Karabakh. About 800 000 Azerbaijanis and other non-Armenian nations
    were forced to leave their permanent residence and became internally
    displaced persons.

    The court noted that no one Azerbaijani lives in the occupied
    territories today.

    I repeat again that the legal issues, including the issue of violation
    of the rights of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons by the
    Republic of Armenia, will be considered in the next phase.

    Azerbaijan, in the words of the European Court, submitted direct and
    indirect evidences, which prove that the territory named as "Nagorno
    Karabakh Republic" is a "new administration subordinated to Yerevan".

    I consider that these evidences are significant for bringing Armenia
    to responsibility for violation of the rights of Azerbaijani internally
    displaced persons.

    The decision about the admissibility of the Sargsyan's claims against
    Azerbaijan is also interesting.

    The issues raised by Chiragov and others against Armenia were touched
    upon in the complaint. It also contains claims about the destruction
    of an Armenian cemetery in the territory of Azerbaijan. But this part
    of the complaint has had no perspective since very beginning and it
    is not surprising that the European Court rejected this claim and
    noted that the complainant had no right to introduce himself as a
    "victim" of violation of the Convention.

    In substance, while considering the claim of Armenian side, the
    court must first of all settle the jurisdiction issue, in other
    words, must pass decision on Azerbaijan's responsibility because
    of infringement of principles of the European Convention on Human
    Rights. The Azerbaijani government announced in the European Court
    that Gulustan village is situated in the contact line of Azerbaijani
    and Armenian troops, the Armenian side repeatedly violates ceasefire
    here and therefore Azerbaijan has no opportunity to implement
    the application of Convention's principles in this territory, and
    consequently Azerbaijan is not responsible for it.

    Evidently the Armenian side understood the weight of this argument
    and that's why we can observe that there has been no information on
    the violation of ceasefire regime in the abovementioned part of the
    contact line.

    In any case we have a big task on gathering the legal evidences
    confirming Armenia's military aggression and occupation of Azerbaijani
    lands.

    We must prove our rightness in the court and contribute to the work
    on protection of the rights of the IDPs to return to their homes.

    Besides, one of the significant results of this work can be the
    international court's recognition of the fact of the occupation of
    one fifth part of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.

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