Armenian NGOs сall on Pashinyan to maintain legal actions against Azerbaijan

NGOs disagree with Pashinyan’s proposals

“We demand that the Armenian government and the prime minister under no circumstances abandon interstate legal claims against Azerbaijan,” reads a joint statement by more than 20 Armenian NGOs.

On January 9, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented Baku with a proposal for “long-term stability and peace in the region,” consisting of 12 points. Among them was the mutual withdrawal of legal claims filed against each other in international courts.

Civil society representatives have condemned this point as “unacceptable and reprehensible,” stressing that abandoning interstate lawsuits would lead to impunity for Azerbaijan’s human rights violations and crimes. Furthermore, they argue, it would encourage further violations and crimes.

“In international practice, no attempt to establish lasting peace after a conflict has excluded international mechanisms for ensuring justice,” the statement emphasizes.

Meanwhile, the NGOs remind that issues of human rights protection and accountability for serious violations are not matters for discussion within a peace agreement framework.

They also deem Pashinyan’s proposal to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group equally unacceptable

• Opinion: ‘Aliyev makes threats because he cannot neutralise Armenia’s potential’
• Opinion: Armenia must use its trump card on road unblocking issue

• ‘Yerevan sees risk of further escalation’: views on the Pashinyan-Aliyev remote dialogue

“Dropping lawsuits serves Baku’s interests”

The authors of the statement argue that abandoning lawsuits is in Baku’s interest, as it would allow Azerbaijan to evade accountability for severe and widespread human rights violations and avoid being recognized as a “racist state.”

NGO representatives emphasize that Armenia’s lawsuits against Azerbaijan in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) address gross violations of the fundamental rights of hundreds of thousands of people:

“These lawsuits consistently highlight ethnic hatred as a state-level policy pursued by Azerbaijan.”

Moreover, they argue that Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policies persist. Evidence of this, they say, includes:

• The forced displacement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh;
• The ongoing falsification and destruction of Armenian cultural heritage;
• The desecration of Armenian graves and the destruction of Armenian property;
• Branding Armenians and the Armenian state as “fascist”;
• Direct threats to the existence of the Republic of Armenia.

“This policy has now been supplemented by the state-level development and promotion of the fabricated term ‘Western Azerbaijan,’ which constitutes a direct and overt threat to Armenia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, the physical security of its citizens, and their right to live in their own state,” the statement concludes.

Pashinyan's 12 proposals to Baku: 'Drop escalatory rhetoric'

In Armenia, these were seen as meeting Azerbaijan’s demands. However, Baku still declared that the Armenian Prime Minister’s proposals cannot be considered “evidence of good intentions.”

“Armenia must hold Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership accountable”

The organizations behind the statement assert that protecting its citizens is the Armenian government’s fundamental duty. All complaints submitted to international judicial bodies aim to prevent mass human rights violations. Therefore, if Yerevan abandons these cases, it would constitute a failure to fulfill its obligations to protect rights:

“Such a decision by the Armenian government would lead to impunity for war crimes, directly violating the country’s international commitments.”

Civil society representatives argue that instead of withdrawing its lawsuits, the Armenian government should appeal to the International Criminal Court. They believe Armenia should demand that Azerbaijan’s political and military leadership be held accountable for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

"Armenia must not refrain from filing lawsuits against Azerbaijan." Opinion

The head of the NGO “Protection of Rights Without Borders,” Araks Melkonyan, finds the discussion on the possibility of abandoning claims in international courts alarming and even dangerous

“Refrain from disbanding OSCE Minsk Group”

NGO representatives emphasized that the OSCE Minsk Group remains the only body with an international mandate for the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict:

“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be considered resolved through the legitimization of force—Azerbaijan’s military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, massive human rights violations, and ethnic cleansing of its residents.”

They argue that agreeing to dissolve the Minsk Group would imply Armenia’s acceptance of conflict resolution through military means, which “would not only be a gross violation of the principles of the Helsinki Final Act but also pose a direct threat to Armenia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

"Dissolution of Minsk Group aligns with Yerevan’s interests" – Armenian political scientist

The Armenian Foreign Ministry stated that “the question of continuing the Minsk process could be considered in the context of concluding a peace agreement,” commented political scientist Robert Ghevondyan

NGOs disagree with Pashinyan’s proposals