BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 24. An international conference titled “Right to Return and Self-Determination: Double Standards and Selective Approaches” is being held at the US Capitol in Washington, organized by the Baku Initiative Group.
According to the group, the event is the first conference held at the US Congress focused on the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis by Armenia.
The conference brings together experts specializing in refugee and minority rights, human rights advocates, international law specialists, representatives of diaspora organizations affected by violence, discrimination and persecution based on ethnicity, civil society representatives, and members of affected communities.
Participants are discussing the recognition and protection of the fundamental right of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis who were displaced from their historical homeland as a result of ethnic cleansing policies — including the right to return safely, voluntarily and with dignity.
The discussions also focus on the legal assessment under international law of destruction, desecration and appropriation of Azerbaijani cultural, religious and historical heritage in Armenia, including place names, mosques, cemeteries, shrines and other sites.
Participants are also examining possible mechanisms for international reporting and monitoring through the United Nations and relevant bodies, including documentation efforts, fact-finding missions, and potential investigations and reporting by UN special rapporteurs and other international mandate holders.
The conference also includes discussions on the exercise of the right to self-determination by peoples affected by colonialism, particularly issues related to placing territories considered by participants to be colonies on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
Background
Throughout the 20th century, Western Azerbaijanis were systematically forcibly removed from their historical lands located in present-day Armenia in several stages — in 1905–1906, 1918–1920, 1948–1953, and 1987–1991 — and subjected to ethnic cleansing. As a result of this process, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were displaced from their homelands, numerous people were killed, subjected to torture and inhuman treatment, and the socio-moral and economic foundations of families were destroyed.
The policy of ethnic cleansing was not limited to the physical removal of the Azerbaijani population from their historical lands, but was also aimed at erasing their cultural, religious, and historical heritage, which had been formed over centuries. Mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and other examples of material and cultural heritage belonging to the Azerbaijani people remaining in Armenia have been destroyed, insulted, or appropriated, more than 2,000 toponyms of Azerbaijani origin have been changed and Armenianized, thereby implementing a systematic policy aimed at falsifying historical memory and the ethno-cultural identity of the region.
The 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees confirms the right of return as one of the important requirements of international law, the restoration of the rights of persons displaced as a result of ethnic cleansing. In this regard, ensuring the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of Western Azerbaijanis forcibly expelled from the territory of present-day Armenia to their historical homeland, the restoration of their rights to housing, land, property, cultural and religious heritage should be assessed in the context of Armenia's international legal responsibility.
Conference venue and time: Washington, U.S. Congress, Kennedy Caucus Hall, Russell Senate Office Building, June 24, at 09:00.
