“Armenia cannot answer instead of NKR”
"The Nagorno-Karabak Republic and the territories surrounding the country are not controlled by the Republic of Armenia," Armenia's representative to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Gevorg Kostanyan announced in Strasbourg Wedenesday during the hearing in the case of Chiragov and others vs. Armenia.
Citing Nagorno Karabakh's Declaration of Independence which is based on the right to freedom of expression, Kostanyan announced that the Nagorno-Karabak Republic and its adjacent territories are controlled by Karabakh authorities. Relying on the aforesaid, the Armenian representative stressed that the Azerbaijani complaint does not meet the demands of the European Convention on Human Rights and is not subject to consideration in court.
On September 15, the ECtHR is set to hear a complaint brought by several Azeris against the Republic of Armenia (Chiragov and others vs. Armenia). Azeris state that they have been deprived of their property as well as an opportunity to use, will and prosper it in the near future as the Armenian government continues rejecting their demand to return Lachin.
Remarkably, on the same day, the Court is due to hear another complaint (Sargsyan vs. Azerbaijan) filed by an Armenian family. Minas Sargsyan, a former resident of Gulistan in the Shahumyan region, north of Artsakh, filed a complaint on August 11, 2006, regarding the destruction of his house and eviction from his property. In June 1992, when the Azerbaijani forces bombed Gulistan, Sargsyans' two-storey house was destroyed. As a result, the entire population of the village, including the Sargsyans, fled fearing for their lives.
Sargsyan accuses Azerbaijani authorities of destruction of his house and eviction from his property, infringement on his right to a private and family life and to his home because of his forced displacement, demolition or vandalism of several Armenian cemeteries in Azerbaijan.
