One year ago, on 19 September 2023, a blitzkrieg-like attack by Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh region led to the expulsion of the entire Christian population that had been living there for thousands of years – around 120,000 ethnic Armenians. On 19 September 2024, the former Minister of State of the de facto Republic of Artsakh, Artak Beglaryan, and the last Human Rights Ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan, filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court as victims of ‘crimes against humanity’. They are represented in this case by lawyer François Zimeray, a human rights expert and former French ambassador, and lawyer Catalina de la Sota of the law firm Zimeray and Finelle.

The complaint highlights the lack of food, medicine and other basic necessities that the plaintiffs and the civilian population as a whole were deprived of during the blockade by Azerbaijan that preceded the attack, starting in December 2022. Several other leaders and residents who were unable to flee Nagorno-Karabakh were arrested by the Azerbaijani authorities and have since been held in custody without access to their families and lawyers. They were mistreated and tortured. “The world must say no to this political bestiality. That is what the lawsuit we are filing is about”, the lawyers told the media.

The complaint was filed under Article 15 of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, which allows the prosecutor to open an investigation based on information brought to his attention. All the conditions are in place to ensure that those responsible are held to account before international criminal justice for crimes against humanity, the lawyers further stated.

As a sign of solidarity with those displaced from the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a result of the Azerbaijani attack a year ago, Michaela Koller, spokeswoman of the German section of the ISHR, travelled to Armenia. She presented Gegham Stepanyan, this year’s special award winner of the Stephanus Foundation, with the certificate for this award, because he was unable to attend the award ceremony in April at the German section of the ISHR’s Annual General Meeting. Together with representatives of the ISHR’s Armenian section, they visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex, the genocide memorial in the Armenian capital Yerevan, and laid flowers there. The ISHR supports his demand for reparations and a right of return, and thus the lawsuit in The Hague.