Chingiz Asgerov, the Government Agent of Azerbaijan before the European Court of Human Rights sent a letter to Mr. Dean Spielmann, President of the European Court, in connection with the large number of applications of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons lodged with the Court and the absence of any progress with regard to their examination, AzVision.az reports.

The letter reads:

“Dear Sir,
I am writing to you with regard to a large number of cases lodged by Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons who were forced out of the Republic of Armenia and the part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh, by the Armenian Armed Forces.

The Court has recently made contribution to the legal aspects of the longstanding Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In particular, on 16 June 2015, the Court delivered its judgments in Chiragov and Others v. Armenia (application no. 13216/05) and Sargsyan v. Azerbaijan (application no. 40167/06) – two applications lodged on 6 April 2005 and 11 August 2006 respectively, and communicated to the respondent Governments almost simultaneously in June-July 2007.

You are well aware of the fact that in June 2008, the Court gave a notice of another application related to this conflict – Arakelyan v. Azerbaijan (application no. 13465/07) – to the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I should recall that the parties’ submissions concerning this application, in which the applicant has raised the issues identical to those in the Sargsyan case, were made by the end of April 2009. Following the judgment in the Sargsyan case, the Court has resumed examination of the Arakelyan’s application and asked the parties to make further submissions.

In this connection I should draw your attention to the fact that a large number of applications lodged by the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons against the Republic of Armenia are pending before the Court as from 2005. According to the information received by the Government of Azerbaijan form the applicants or their representatives, these applications concern not only the alleged violation of property rights or right to respect for private and family life, but also the alleged violation of the right to life and the prohibition of torture. There were also applications from victims of the act of genocide in Khojaly, which has been recognised as a crime against humanity by many States and international organisations.

Regard should be taken also of the course of examination of the application related to two other internally displaced persons from Azerbaijan.

Information received by the Government indicates that in March of this year Azerbaijani nationals Firuze ASKEROVA and Albina VESELOVA lodged with the Court an application concerning alleged violations of the rights of their husbands, Messrs. Dilqəm Əskərov and Şahbaz Quliyev, respectively. The applicants complained that their husbands, who were forced out by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia from their homes in the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan and who tried to visit the the graves of their relatives in Kalbajar, have been unlawfully sentenced to long-term imprisonment by illegal “court” of the illegal regime established by the Republic of Armenia on the occupied Azerbaijani territory. The applicants have referred to Articles 3, 5, 6, 8, 13 of the Convention and Article 2 of Protocol no.4 and asked the Court to indicate to the Armenian Government, under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, that the interim measure applied, and to give priority treatment to their application in accordance with Rule 41 of the Rules of Court. However, notwithstanding the applicants` complaints concerning very serious violations of the Convention provisions and the need for the Court’s urgent intervention, the President of the Section, to which the case has been allocated, decided that it was not necessary to apply Rule 39 or to give priority treatment to the application.

Against this background, the Court gave priority under Rule 41 to more than ten applications against the Republic of Azerbaijan during the last year.

Having regard to the above facts, the Government of Azerbaijan object against such treatment of applications by the Court, which should, at least, demonstrate impartiality and fairness towards all Europeans.

Yours faithfully,
Chingiz Asgerov

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