Armenian refugees are always vulnerable
Gayane Movsesyan
The interlocutor of “Respublika Armenia” is “The A. D. Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Protection Centre” NGO Director Meri Khachatryan
– The Sakharov Centre was established back in October 1990. It was created in the name of Armenian Fund for Progress, Protection of Human Rights and Mercy after A.D. Sakharov. That period coincided with the ethnic cleaning and genocide carried out against the Armenian population in Azerbaijan in 1988-92. When our compatriots expelled from Azerbaijan came to Armenia, the Fund provided them with a lot of social and financial assistance, mostly with the support of international organizations, in particular, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Armenia, implementing small grant programs.
In 1997, our organization was registered as a non-governmental organization and continues the same mission with the same beneficiaries, developing and improving its activities in order to somehow alleviate the situation of refugees.
As a non-governmental organization, we started working in the legal field. We not only provided free legal assistance to the refugees, but also supported them, participated in the development of legislative acts, and presented proposals for bills. We emphasize that we somehow managed to bring the problems of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan into the legislative field.
Since 1998, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and with the support of the UNHCR, the Sakharov Centre initiated the delivery of about 13,000 letter-applications on behalf of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, regarding the violence and atrocities committed against them during their forced deportation from Azerbaijan, as well as on the issue of compensation for confiscated real estate and property. We also reached out to the foreign ministers of the five countries whose representatives were then involved in the UN Review Commission of 1503 Complaints.
These applications have been discussed behind the scenes for two years, but no decision has been made.
Levon Nersisyan, the former director of the Sakharov Centre, participated at the conference held in Geneva before 2000. There, he was interested in the fate of those applications, what stage their discussion is at, what decisions to expect. At that time, the representatives of 3-4 countries said that the applications are being discussed, but the issue has a political connotation. Apparently, the UN Human Rights Committee did not want to take over the discussion of this issue. There was already the OSCE Minsk Group, within the framework of which they were trying to find a comprehensive solution to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict…
– What happened to the applications?
– They stayed there. Levon Nersisyan had seen those applications laid out on the floor in the committee.
– Weren’t they digitized?
– Unfortunately, in 1997-98 the Centre did not have the technology to digitize these applications. Therefore, we did not save them electronically. I think it was done in the Committee.
– Why did Armenia at some point stop granting refugee status to refugees from Azerbaijan and started to integrate them?
– “At that time, Armenia started the integration of refugees not through education, but found it appropriate to start naturalization, which is also considered one of the elements of refugee integration. In other words, the process of accepting Armenian citizenship by the refugees was initiated. Our organization was against forcing refugees to take this step. The coercion was that the refugees were promised to be provided with an apartment if they accepted the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia. Naturally, refugees in need of housing were tempted by this.
In practice, not everyone was provided with an apartment. And then many people emigrated. Many refugees accepted RA citizenship in order to easily leave the country, get a Schengen visa and other purposes, and already in other countries, using their birth certificate, they got some status.
Our Centre, which has branches in Shirak, Gegharkunik and Syunik regions, supported refugees in the matter of naturalization. gave advice, restored documents, discovered unregistered births of children, not only among refugees, but also among local residents of border villages. Many problems emerged during this work.
When the process of issuing housing right certificates to the refugees started, our organization again helped them to legally formulate their applications, appeals, etc. In the process, of course, we recorded violations.
Although the Centre did not agree with the naturalization policy, it participated in it so that the process would go without violations, so that they would understand all the nuances of accepting RA citizenship. We have published special brochures in which we have presented what rights and obligations refugees will have if they accept RA citizenship, what are its positive and negative aspects…
And after 2005-2006, the term “refugees” simply disappeared from the name of the state structure, the Department of Migration and Refugees under the Government of the Republic of Armenia turned into the Department of Migration, which was also assigned the responsibility of dealing with issues arising from refugees. Of course, this department has a huge database of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan. There, of course, you can find out how many refugees came to Armenia in 1988-92 (more than 360 thousand). However, it is clear that their number is decreasing year by year. Wars, epidemics, etc. contributed to this. Especially since the social issues of the refugees have not been resolved. And today, many refugees live in hostels, they have very complex problems that have not been solved…
– Former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, “when creating the State Oil Fund in 2001, stated in the first paragraph of the decree that the political status of refugees expelled from Armenia remains valid until they return to their native lands.”
– “In those years, we and a number of other non-governmental organizations suggested that refugees receiving RA citizenship should be given a certificate that they continue to be refugees and must state where, in what year and for what reason they were forcibly displaced. This is also relevant today for those Artsakh citizens who became refugees during the Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh in the fall of 2020. They are facing the same status issue: either refugees or RA citizens, because they have Armenian passports (find more details here: https://www. .ra.am/archives/88106/).
The issue can be resolved if the state shows political will and records in relevant certificates where, when and why these people appeared in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
– Clause 7 of the Trilateral Declaration of November 9, 2020 provides for the return of displaced people and refugees from Artsakh to “the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions under the supervision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/64384). Azerbaijan does not allow UNHCR to enter Artsakh. Are they doing something in Armenia?
– To be honest, I don’t know if UNHCR is taking any steps to return the people of Artsakh to their places of residence, in particular, Shushi and Hadrut. The right of return of the people of Artsakh cannot be realized. Today, it is not even possible to transport patients from Artsakh to Armenia without the International Red Cross.
Of course, safety is a top priority. Who and how will ensure their safety there, when threats of another genocide are regularly heard from Baku?
– I understand that they will not return as long as these territories are under the control of Azerbaijan. I just wanted to know if UNHCR is doing any work with these refugees.
– I have no information. At this stage, the UN is not yet active in this matter. They are probably watching what policy the Armenian authorities will pursue.
In any case, it is too early to talk about a return. Today it is more important to resolve the issue of their status. They have many social and legal problems. They cannot find a normal job, take loans, mortgages. They have an Armenian passport, and the place of birth and registration is, let’s say, in Shushi. The survey conducted among 215 refugees showed that most of them cannot find a job in Armenia, apart from the mentioned reasons, there is also the language barrier and so on. The amount that the government allocates to them for housing is too small. Refugees are ready to take loans, mortgage loans, but banks do not give them.
I think that this issue needs a state approach. I suggest that the government put this issue on its agenda and the Central Bank together with other banks develop a special policy towards this group of people.
The most important thing is that the current authorities of Armenia realize that our compatriots who came to Armenia from Azerbaijan and Artsakh and other countries are always are in a vulnerable state. Armenia should have a state body for the protection of refugees’ rights, which will implement state policy. It should be a special body, not attached to some other structure. It should be a separate ministry.
In time, the authorities optimized the Ministry of Diaspora and appointed a chief commissioner. This ministry was supposed to support the preservation of Armenians scattered all over the world. It should not have been optimized so that the work it does can be done by non-governmental organizations. From a legal point of view, the state-minded government should understand that it should have the Ministries of Diaspora and Refugees’ Rights Protection, which will develop a state concept, strategy, and policy with the support and participation of non-governmental organizations.
By the author. Regarding UNHCR’s work with Armenian refugees, or the lack of it, I would like to remind of the following: in 2009, the Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Refugees of Azerbaijan, Ali Hasanov, announced that the Government of Azerbaijan had switched from the Refugee Support Program to the Development and Rehabilitation Program for Refugees, the purpose of which is to prepare for the “Great Return”, which was developed with the participation of international organizations, including the United Nations, and will be implemented step by step if the Nagorno Karabakh conflict peace treaty is signed.
In a conversation with the author of these lines, the head of the Yerevan office of the UNHCR denied the participation of the UN in the preparation of the “Great Return” Azerbaijani program. However, there was no official denial of Hasanov’s words.
In this matter, the international structures are actively working with Azerbaijan today, which strives to populate not only Artsakh, but also Armenia with Azerbaijanis. But this is the topic of a separate article.
The interview is available at https://www.ra.am/archives/88628/?fbclid=IwAR099vIL3zIM2SDhDMEIhbauxZ66kr1C-OjIfuoSeMz-udCdazNJD08K9jM