From left, the Human Rights Defenders of Artsakh and Armenia Gegham Stepanyan and Arman Tatoyan

Following claims by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who on Friday minimized Artsakh’s right to self-determination, the Human Rights Defenders of Armenia and Artsakh issued a joint statement delivering a terse rebuke to Armenia’s leader.

The assessments that the Prime Minister of Armenia made during his recent press conference are extremely dangerous for the vital rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and obstruct protection from the policy of genocide of Azerbaijan, said the Arman Tatoyan and Gegham Stepanyan, the Human Rights Defenders of Armenia and Artsakh.

“The approaches voiced at the press conference of the Prime Minister of Armenia on Dec. 24 completely contradict the basic rights of the Armenians of Artsakh to security and create fertile ground for Azerbaijani violations. These approaches fundamentally jeopardize the inherent right to national self-determination,” said the join statement.

“Prime Minister of Armenia has overlooked the consistent discriminatory policy of persecution against the Armenian people, the atrocities, the deprivation of property by Azerbaijan in 1923 and other illegal acts for the eviction of Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO).”

“In 2020, the Azerbaijani state policy of hatred and enmity toward Armenia, during the war, led to massive ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, destruction of cities and villages (Stepanakert, Martuni, Shushi, Hadrut, etc.), depriving people of their homes, torture and atrocities, murder, desecration and destruction of churches,” the Human Rights Defenders pointed out.

“After the war, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, under the auspices of the Azerbaijani authorities, continue to violate the vital rights of the people of Artsakh and kill civilians,” said Tatoyan and Stepanyan.

“We consider the assessments of the Prime Minister of Armenia extremely dangerous. They substantiate the supremacy of political issues over human rights, reinforce Azerbaijan’s false theses that ignore human rights. We urge everyone to stop ignoring human rights, creating fertile ground for false Azerbaijani claims, to exclude the subordination of human rights to political issues, as well as to refrain from creating artificial obstacles to protect the rights of our compatriots, especially in international instances,” said the Human Rights Defenders.