After the signing of the trilateral declaration on the cessation of the Artsakh war, when it became clear that a number of Armenian settlements would be transferred to Azerbaijan, many Artsakh residents began to burn their homes before being deported, not wanting Azerbaijanis to live there after them. Understanding their pain and situation in a human way, a number of lawyers urged not to resort to such extreme steps, to preserve both property and certificates for their property for the full protection of their rights in the future by legal mechanisms.
Ara Ghazaryan, a specialist in international law, lawyer, also noted in an interview with Haykakan Zhamanak that the burning of houses and certificates is wrong, since only if they are available, it is possible to get a record of violations of property rights in the European Court of Human Rights.
"Law differs from politics in that it is a universal category and does not depend on who controls the state, it cannot disappear in all cases," Ghazaryan said.
Our conversation on the topic:
- Mr. Ghazaryan, where and by what procedure will it contribute to the preservation of certificates of ownership of Artsakh residents ' houses?
- Just as those deported in 1992-94 were successful in the European Court of Human Rights, and both those deported by Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to the same mechanism and according to the same principles, these people will succeed, but for this, property certificates must be preserved, and houses are not destroyed.
The right of ownership, regardless of whether the competence of the State changes or the States change, is universal.
- What documents can play an important role?- Any document that, by virtue of public law, shows that this house, car, land plot or other property belongs to this person. The fact that houses are burning is wrong, the right of ownership is not lost by the surrender of these territories. In the future, negotiations on the contract will begin, and the contract will consist of several chapters. One of them will concern human rights with all its components, the other-the return of refugees. In the chapter on human rights, we will focus specifically on property law, in terms of refugees, it should be stated: if possible, a person will come and live at home, and if Azerbaijan does not give such a guarantee, it means that it must compensate.
These are the foundations of future negotiations, which must be resolved either by a political or legal process, but for this people must be able to show evidence. Since the status quo has already disappeared, Armenia and Azerbaijan are entering the legal field, and Armenia is already the claimant here, if Azerbaijan was then, then Armenia will be now, and it is necessary to inform citizens that they keep property certificates and do not harm them.
- Azerbaijan recently announced that it will demand compensation from Armenia in connection with the burning of houses. There is such a legal possibility.
- The legal mechanism that Aliyev claims has very few theoretical possibilities, in most cases it is a political demarche. If these people have left their homes, it is because their life and safety are not guaranteed by Azerbaijan, and this is a confirmed fact by international tribunals, in particular, the ECHR, the whole world knows about it.
- And photos depicting property damage suffered during the war can also have evidentiary value?
- The best evidence of damage, of course, are the procedural protocols on the part of the investigators, but now any photo of the damage to property or the recording of public bodies or the transmission of the media are important evidence.
- What should the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees do in this direction?
- There are many cases that will take decades to complete. This structure is engaged in providing assistance to refugees, monitoring. Property issues, of course, will require a legal solution, the office does not make decisions, but it has an important international mandate and is an important link for raising problems in the international arena, so it is good that it will be involved in these processes.
We must eliminate our apathy and distrust of international law. We have already walked this path once՝
In the cases of" Sargsyan v. Azerbaijan "or" Chiragov and others v. Armenia". These are head cases, each of which has hundreds of cases behind it.
It is important that the principles and mechanisms have been developed, even the Committee of Ministers noted that the possibility of full implementation of these decisions will only be in the future, if there is a peace treaty. In fact, this was said back in the 90s, and these judicial acts or conclusions issued in their enforcement proceedings seem to be written for today. The judges of the ECHR, looking to the future, outlined the mechanisms by which today's problems should be solved.
It should be noted that the case "Chiragov v. Armenia" was submitted to the European Court in 2005 by six citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan. They claimed that after 1992 they were not allowed to return to the Lachin district, as a result of which they were unable to use their residential buildings and property. As property, they indicated, for example, a shop belonging to them, a cafe, land plots, beehives, a lot of animals and presented numerous proofs and certificates about them. The applicants also noted that they had not received any compensation for these losses: After several years of investigation in 2015 and 2017, the ECHR finally found that there were violations of the rights to preserve property, respect for personal and family life and an effective remedy, and ordered Armenia to pay each of the 6 Azerbaijanis 5,000 euros in compensation for material and non-material damage, as well as 28,642.87 pounds for legal costs.
The ECHR found similar violations of the rights of an Armenian citizen. We are talking about a resident of the village of Gulistan, Minas Sargsyan, who in his statement claimed that in the 90s, after leaving his village, he was not able to return there in the future, dispose of his property, enter the graves of his parents. Sargsyan presented the relevant documents and noted that he had not received compensation for the incident, nor had an effective remedy been applied. The European Court of Justice, recognizing violations of his rights, Azerbaijan has ordered Sargsyan's legal successors to pay 5,000 euros as compensation for material and non-material damage, as well as 30,000 euros for legal costs.