ECHR to hold hearing of Azerbaijani IDPs' suit against Armenia

The applicants, Elkhan Chiragov, Adishirin Chiragov, Ramiz Jabrayilov, Akif Hasanov, Fakhraddin Pashayev and Garaja Jabrayilov, are six Azerbaijani nationals who were born in 1950, 1947, 1960, 1959, 1956 and 1940 respectively.

Due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the applicants were forced to flee on 17 May 1992. They have not been able to return to their homes and properties since then because of Armenian occupation.

The applicants complain in particular about the loss of their properties in Lachin, as well as various other possessions such as cars, livestock and handmade carpets. The Armenian authorities made no attempt to compensate them for their losses or to provide a remedy to persons displaced from the occupied territories.

They rely on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) and Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention.

Finally, the applicants claim, under Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) in conjunction with all the above Articles, that, if they had been ethnic Armenian and Christian, they would not have been forcibly displaced from their homes by the Armenian-backed Karabakh forces and that their property rights would have been recognized and their complaints investigated.

The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 6 April 2005.

On 9 March 2010, the Chamber to which the case was assigned relinquished jurisdiction in favor of the Grand Chamber.


/AzerTAc/