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EU insists Karabakh Armenians be allowed to return home, drawing Azerbaijan’s ire

Posted on August. 23. 2024

Tensions between the European Union and Azerbaijan have grown after recent comments over their stances on the future of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

The controversy started Sunday, when the European Union’s special representative to the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, said the bloc has been clear that there will be direct talks between Baku and Karabakh Armenians on their “safe and dignified return home.” 

Klaar added in the interview published by JAMnews that “Azerbaijan does have an obligation in this regard, which – as it seems to me – it does not deny.” 

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry hit back at those remarks Tuesday, saying that it is actually Armenia that has an obligation to facilitate the return of ethnic Azerbaijanis displaced from the country during Soviet rule. 

Deputy spokesperson Vasif Aliyev’s statement referred to Karabakh Armenians as having “voluntarily migrated from the Karabakh region” over the past few years. In fact, Karabakh’s more than 100,000 population was displaced by the 2020 war, as well as a punishing blockade in 2022-2023, and the ethnic cleansing operation that took place last September. 

Klaar had rejected Baku’s instrumentalization of what he called “the question of so-called Western Azerbaijan,” an idea put forward in recent years that modern Armenia is actually part of Azerbaijan, often referenced by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. 

Baku has insisted on tying the return of Karabakh Armenians to their homes with the return of Azerbaijanis who fled Armenia at the start of the ethnic conflict in the late 1980s. That in effect ignores that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were also ethnically cleansed from Azerbaijan in pogroms around the same time. 

According to Klaar, “these are completely distinct questions that cannot be mixed.” 

Klaar also expanded on the state of normalization talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, telling JAMnews, “As far as I know, most of the draft peace treaty has already been agreed upon. It seems to me that the only thing missing is the political will needed to reach the finish line.” 

Klaar has served in his capacity since 2017 and will begin a new role as the EU’s ambassador to Uzbekistan in September. He is due to be replaced by Czech diplomat Magdalena Grono, who previously served as senior foreign policy adviser and chief diplomatic adviser to European Council President Charles Michel, as well as program director for Europe and Central Asia at the International Crisis Group. 

Meanwhile, former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian called Tuesday for “the right of collective return of the people of Artsakh under international protection and guarantees (to) be brought to the negotiation agenda.” 

In a video posted on Facebook, Oskanian, who now heads the non-governmental Committee for the Defense of the Fundamental Rights of the Artsakh People, claimed that he has seen a lot of behind-the-scenes support in meetings with international organizations for the collective return of Artsakh Armenians with international guarantees of their protection. 

A host of international actors besides the EU have also publicly called for the Karabakh Armenians’ right of return, including France, Iran, Russia, and the United States, as well as the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Despite this, Armenia has remained silent – at least publicly and it is unclear whether this topic is part of the delicate negotiations with Baku for a normalization deal. Yet it is unclear what “normal” would look like without addressing the basic rights of the people directly impacted by the more than 30-year-old conflict. 

“Undoubtedly, it is recorded by people who are aware of this issue that the matter of Artsakh has not been resolved yet,” Oskanian added, responding to Klaar’s comments. “If Azerbaijan seems to have solved the issue of Artsakh by military means, it is seriously mistaken. The issue of Artsakh is still not resolved until the issue of Artsakh Armenians returning to their homes with international guarantees is resolved.”