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Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

Armenia files interstate complaints against Turkey with European Court of Human Rights

Yerevan accused Ankara of recruiting Syrian militants and sending them to Azerbaijan to take part in combat operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in the autumn of 2020, Armenia’s mission to the ECHR said

European Court of Human Rights EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER

European Court of Human Rights

© EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER

YEREVAN, May 18. /TASS/. Armenia has filed an interstate complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Turkey accusing it of recruiting Syrian militants and sending them to Azerbaijan to take part in combat operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in the autumn of 2020, Armenia’s mission to the ECHR said on Tuesday.

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"Armenia has lodged an interstate complaint with the ECHR against Turkey over its convention violations by means of recruiting Syrian mercenaries during the 44-day war, sending them to Azerbaijan and offering military assistance to Azerbaijan. In particular, the Armenian government insists that Turkey violated the rights of the people of Armenia and Artsakh (unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - TASS) to freedom, inviolability, property, private and family life," it said.

"The government has provided a lot of evidence proving that Turkey recruited Syrian mercenaries and sent them from Syria to Azerbaijan, supplied the Azerbaijani armed forces with combat vehicles, weapons and munitions, and took part in the conflict in other ways," the Armenian mission said.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachinsky corridor that connects Armenia with the enclave. Apart from that, several districts came over to Baku’s control.

Armenia’s authorities repeatedly said that Turkey was helping Azerbaijan during the combat operations. Yerevan also claimed that Ankara had deployed militants from the Middle East to Nagorno-Karabakh.

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