ArmInfo. At present, more than 700 lawsuits have been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of refugees and from Sumgait, both from Baku and Shahumyan. That is, there is no such settlement, from which the ECtHR would not have submitted a claim on behalf of refugees.
On February 22, during the hearings in the Parliament on the topic "Sumgait pogroms, Armenian phobia as a state policy of Azerbaijan", former deputy of Armenia to the ECHR, MP Gevorg Kostanyan stated. Further in his speech, the MP also touched upon the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, in particular, singled out the decisions in the sweat of Sargsyan and Chiragov. According to Kostanyan, it became a precedent that subsequently the cases of all refugees without exception were considered. "This precedent is the legal basis for considering all other similar cases, which is a precedent for resolving the issues of refugees from Baku, Sumgait, Artsvashen, etc.," the deputy said.
"All our actions are aimed at ensuring that all refugees are confident in the issue of restoring their right to return to their places of residence and protecting their property rights," Kostanyan said.
Meanwhile, former Artsakh Foreign Minister Arman Melikyan complained about the lack of a state policy to protect the rights of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan and international lobbying for this issue. The result of this amorphous policy, according to the ex-minister, was the decision of the ECHR in the Chiragov case, which, according to his definition was political, and on which the Armenian side definitely lost. According to the ex-minister, in the Chiragov case the ECHR left "out of the game" 400 thousand Armenian refugees from Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad. "And all because at that time, a certain public organization was engaged in the issue of filing lawsuits by Armenian refugees in the ECHR, which received a grant of $ 2 million. The grant was aimed specifically at ensuring that the cases were prepared in such a way that the Armenian side lost the case to the ECHR I think that this information, and the situation as a whole, requires a thorough investigation, "Melikyan said.
In turn, the head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, Aram Sargsyan, stated that the Armenian diplomacy is now inactive, leaving the settlement of the Karabakh conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group, whose efforts have not yet been crowned with success. According to Sargsyan, the Armenian side should apply to the international legal authorities for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.