On June 24, an international conference titled “The Right of Return and Self-Determination: Double Standards and Selective Approaches” will be held at the U.S. Congress building in Washington, D.C., organized by the Baku Initiative Group, the Baku Initiative Group told APA.
This will be remembered as the first such event held in the U.S. Congress concerning the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis by Armenia.
It was noted that the conference will bring together experts specializing in the protection of the rights of refugees and national minorities, human rights defenders, specialists in international law, representatives of diaspora organizations whose members have been subjected to violence, discrimination, and persecution on the basis of ethnicity, representatives of civil society institutions, and members of affected communities.
The conference participants will discuss the issue of keeping the recognition of fundamental rights - the right to return to their historical lands in a safe, voluntary and dignified manner - at the center of attention of international organizations, using the example of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis who were forcibly expelled from their historical lands in Armenia as a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing.
An exchange of views will also be held on the possibility of providing a legal assessment under international law of the systematic destruction, desecration, and appropriation of the Azerbaijani people's cultural, religious, and historical heritage remaining in Armenia, including toponyms, mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and other monuments, bringing these violations to international accountability and monitoring mechanisms within the framework of the United Nations and its relevant bodies, conducting on-site investigations and documentation, engaging fact-finding missions for this purpose, and developing investigation and accountability mechanisms at the level of special rapporteurs and other international mandate holders.
The event will also feature discussions on the implementation of the right to self-determination of peoples suffering from colonialism, particularly issues related to placing the inclusion of colonies on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories subject to decolonization on the UN agenda.
It was noted that throughout the 20th century, Western Azerbaijanis were systematically forced out of their historical lands located in present-day Armenia in several stages — in 1905–1906, 1918–1920, 1948–1953, and 1987–1991 — and were subjected to ethnic cleansing. As a result of this process, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were displaced from their native lands, many people were killed, subjected to torture and inhuman treatment, and the social, moral, and economic foundations of families were destroyed: “The policy of ethnic cleansing was not limited solely to the physical removal of the Azerbaijani population from their historical lands, but was also aimed at erasing their cultural, religious, and historical heritage that had developed over centuries. Mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and other examples of the tangible cultural heritage belonging to the Azerbaijani people that remained in Armenia were destroyed, desecrated, or appropriated, while more than 2,000 toponyms of Azerbaijani origin were changed and Armenianized. Thus, a systematic policy aimed at falsifying historical memory and the ethnic-cultural identity of the region was implemented.”
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