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European Court starts hearing of pretension of Azerbaijani IDPs from Nagorno Karabakh against Armenia

16 September 2010 10:44 (UTC +04:00)

The case concerns the applicantsâ€™ complaint that they were forced to flee from their homes in 1992 during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (â€œthe NKAOâ€), which, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, was an autonomous province landlocked within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (â€œthe Azerbaijan SSRâ€). In 1989 the NKAO was approximately 75% ethnic Armenian and 25% ethnic Azeri.
Armed hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh commenced in 1988, coinciding with Armenian demand for the incorporation of the NKAO into Armenia. In September 1991 Armenian members of the Regional Council of the NKAO announced the establishment of the â€œNagorno-Karabakh Republicâ€ (â€œNKRâ€), which then declared its independence from Azerbaijan in January 1992. After that, the conflict gradually escalated into full-scale war. By the end of 1993, ethnic Armenian forces gained control over almost the entire territory of the former NKAO as well as seven adjacent Azerbaijani regions. The conflict resulted in hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees on both sides. In May 1994 the parties to the conflict signed a cease-fire agreement, which holds to this day. However, no final political settlement of the conflict has been reached. The self-proclaimed independence of â€œNKRâ€ has not been recognised by any state or international organisation.
The applicants Elkhan Chiragov, Adishirin Chiragov, Ramiz Gebrayilov, Akif Hasanof, Fekhreddin Pashayev and Qaraca Gabrayilov are six Azerbaijani nationals who were born in 1950, 1947, 1960, 1959, 1956 and 1940 respectively. Mr Gabrayilov is now deceased and his son has continued the application on his fatherâ€™s behalf. All but Mr Hasanof now live in Baku.
The applicants state that they are Azerbaijani Kurds who lived in the district of Lachin, in Azerbaijan, which forms a corridor less than ten kilometres wide between Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (â€œthe Armenian SSRâ€). The great majority of Lachinâ€™s population were Kurds and Azeris. Due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the applicants were forced to flee on 17 May 1992. They have not been able to return to their homes and properties since because of Armenian occupation.
The applicants complain in particular about the loss of their properties in Lachin, as well as various other possessions such as cars, livestock and handmade carpets. They also complain that there is no prospect for them in the foreseeable future to be able to use, sell, bequeath, mortgage or develop their property as the Armenian Government continues to refuse to allow them to return to Lachin. Nor have the Armenian authorities made any attempt to compensate them for their losses or to provide a remedy to persons displaced from the occupied territories. They rely on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) and Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Finally, the applicants claim, under Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Convention in conjunction with all the above Articles, that, if they had been ethnic Armenian and Christian, they would not have been forcibly displaced from their homes by the Armenian-backed Karabakh forces and that their property rights would have been recognised and their complaints investigated.
The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 6 April 2005. On 9 March 2010 the Chamber to which the case was assigned relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.
The case will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows: Jean-Paul Costa (France), President, Christos Rozakis (Greece), Nicolas Bratza (the United Kingdom), Peer Lorenzen (Denmark), FranÃ§oise Tulkens (Belgium), Josep Casadevall (Andorra), Corneliu BÃ®rsan (Romania), BoÅ¡tjan M. ZupanÄiÄ (Slovenia), Nina VajiÄ‡ (Croatia), Elisabet Fura (Sweden), Alvina Gyulumyan (Armenia), Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), Egbert Myjer (the Netherlands), Sverre Erik Jebens (Norway), Giorgio Malinverni (Switzerland), George Nicolaou (Cyprus), Luis LÃ³pez Guerra (Spain), judges, Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg), Isabelle Berro-LefÃ¨vre (Monaco), David ThÃ³r BjÃ¶rgvinsson (Iceland).