Artsakh

Neglect of Artsakh’s Displaced and Government Inaction

Artsakh Displaced

The Council of Europe workshop on the “Strengthening Human Rights Guarantees for Displaced Persons in Armenia,” held on December 20-21, was an important initiative aimed at supporting displaced individuals. However, the participation of representatives from the Armenian government highlights a political approach that fails to address the restoration of the fundamental rights of the displaced population of Artsakh. Instead, it appears to focus on surfacing specific issues or even sidelining the matter of their rights altogether.

Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), including Deputy Minister Armen Ghazaryan and Migration and Citizenship Service (MCS) Head Nelli Davtyan, presented reforms implemented in 2024 during the workshop. These included the digitization of the residence status application process, the registration of displaced persons’ personal data, the initiation of Armenia-EU visa liberalization negotiations, and the digitalization of the personal records of over 300,000 Armenians forcibly displaced during the ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan between 1988 and 1992. While these initiatives have their importance, they fail to address the full restoration of the rights of Artsakh’s population, whose rights were violated through Azerbaijan’s acts of forced displacement and genocidal policies.

This approach reveals that the government’s policies are not aimed at the comprehensive protection of the rights of Artsakh’s displaced population but are instead limited to superficial solutions. Negotiations on visa liberalization are presented as significant achievements, yet their relevance to the pressing issue of Artsakh’s displaced residents is abstract and distracts from the immediate challenges at hand.

Protecting the rights of Artsakh’s displaced population demands systemic and profound actions. Rather than combating violence and displacement, the authorities often resort to measures that fail to address the fundamental issues.

This situation underscores that the current Armenian government lacks the political will to pursue the restoration of the rights of Artsakh’s residents. Neglecting the rights of displaced persons and the future of Artsakh not only violates their fundamental rights but also endangers Armenia’s sovereignty and national interests. The government must either revise its approach and take decisive steps to ensure the full protection of the rights of Artsakh’s displaced population or step away from the political arena.

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