Summary of the Report 'Why Are There No Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?' Published

The report documents how the population of Nagorno-Karabakh has been systematically subjected to periodic attacks, blockades, and terror by Azerbaijan, resulting in severe violations of the fundamental rights of the Armenian population and depriving them of basic living conditions.

The report has been jointly prepared by Freedom House, the International Partnership for Human Rights, the Democracy Development Foundation, the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, the Legal Development and Protection Foundation, the Human Rights Protection Without Borders organization, and Truth Hounds.

Based on in-depth testimonies collected during the fact-finding mission and data available in open sources, the analysis concludes that Azerbaijan has subjected the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing through deliberate and calculated actions.

During over three hundred in-depth interviews with witnesses, gross violations of human rights, international humanitarian law, and the norms of international criminal law by Azerbaijani authorities have been documented.

The fact-finding mission found sufficient evidence to conclude that the actions of the Azerbaijani authorities constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including Article 7 (crimes against humanity) and Article 8 (war crimes), and correspond to the definition of forced displacement of populations, as well as the criteria for ethnic cleansing established by UN experts in the context of the former Yugoslav conflict.

The presentation and discussion of the report's summary took place on July 1, 2024, during the third annual 'Armenian Democracy Forum' co-organized by Freedom House. The full version of the report will be available in September 2024.