European Court recognises Armenian army as occupier - lawyer

With its decision on a lawsuit “Avanesyan and Karapetyan v. Armenia,” the European Court of Human Rights proved that even before the start of the second Karabakh war, occupation troops of Armenia were stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan.

As Caliber.Az reports, Azerbaijani lawyer, member of the presidium of the Bar Association Mukhtar Mustafayev said in remarks for Vesti.az.

The Azerbaijani lawyer noted that during the consideration of the case in the European Court, Armenia tried to take the position that this happened on the territory of the self-proclaimed republic and therefore they cannot be held responsible for it.

“The European Court of Human Rights did not accept this position of Armenia. The European Court recognized the Armenian army as an occupier, that is, it confirmed that Armenia exercised effective governance in the territory of Karabakh,” the lawyer said.

Mukhtar Mustafayev explained that, in other words, the occupation of Karabakh by Armenia and the deployment of an army corps in Karabakh was confirmed by the decision of the European Court.

“They claimed that there are no Armenian armed forces on the territory of Karabakh, and that the self-defense army of the so-called ‘NKR’ is located there. This fact specifically shows that they were called up for military service in Armenia and sent to serve as military personnel in the occupation expeditionary force controlled by the Republic of Armenia,” the lawyer noted.

He emphasized that this decision noted the inhumane attitude of both Armenian officers towards their ordinary soldiers, and between the servicemen themselves.

“This is very interesting, we must convey this fact to international organizations, the Council of Europe, etc. We must convey to Europeans that these ‘unfortunate’ Armenians, whom you so zealously defend, are ruthless even towards their own. And if this is so, then how cruel and ruthless they will be towards the Azerbaijani military personnel. This is proof of that,” he said.

In his opinion, the law-enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan should initiate a criminal case in this regard, because this happened on the territory of Azerbaijan, and put the commander and other persons of this military unit on the international wanted list.

We should note that on October 17, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights made a decision on "Avanesyan and Karapetyan v. Armenia" lawsuit brought by the parents of two Armenian citizens dodged to a military service in Karabakh, where they died under unclear circumstances as a result of a conflict between themselves, and related to the unfair investigation of this incidents.

According to the applicants, the Armenian authorities did not conduct an effective investigation to identify and punish all responsible persons, including high-ranking commanders.

The Strasbourg court ordered that each applicant be paid 30,000 euros in compensation.