An international conference titled “The Right of Return and Self-Determination: Double Standards and Selective Approaches” will be held on June 24 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., organized by the Baku Initiative Group.

Axar.az informs that according to the Baku Initiative Group, this will be the first event of its kind held at the U.S. Congress addressing the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis by Armenia.

The conference will bring together experts specializing in the protection of refugees' and minority rights, human rights advocates, international law specialists, representatives of diaspora organizations whose communities have faced violence, discrimination, and persecution based on ethnicity, as well as members of civil society organizations and representatives of affected communities.

Conference participants will discuss the need for international organizations to keep the issue of recognizing fundamental rights—particularly the right to a safe, voluntary, and dignified return to their ancestral homeland—high on the international agenda, using the case of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis who were forcibly displaced from their historic lands in present-day Armenia as a result of ethnic cleansing policies.

Participants will also exchange views on the possibility of securing an international legal assessment of the alleged systematic destruction, desecration, and appropriation of Azerbaijani cultural, religious, and historical heritage remaining in Armenia, including toponyms, mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and other monuments.

The discussions will focus on bringing the mentioned violations to international accountability and monitoring mechanisms within the United Nations and its relevant bodies, conducting on-site investigations and documentation, deploying fact-finding missions, and developing investigation and accountability mechanisms through UN special rapporteurs and other international mandate holders.

The event will also discuss the implementation of the right to self-determination of peoples suffering from colonialism, in particular, the inclusion of colonies on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories to be Decolonized on the UN agenda.

It was noted that throughout the 20th century, Western Azerbaijanis were systematically expelled from their historic lands in present-day Armenia in several waves — in 1905–1906, 1918–1920, 1948–1953, and 1987–1991 — and were subjected to ethnic cleansing. As a result of these processes, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were displaced from their ancestral homes, while many were killed, tortured, or subjected to inhuman treatment. The social, cultural, and economic foundations of countless families were also destroyed.

The policy of ethnic cleansing was not limited to the physical removal of Azerbaijanis from their historic homeland. It was also aimed at erasing their centuries-old cultural, religious, and historical heritage. Mosques, cemeteries, shrines, and other cultural monuments belonging to the Azerbaijani people that remained in Armenia were destroyed, desecrated, or appropriated. More than 2,000 Azerbaijani-origin place names were changed and Armenianized, reflecting a systematic policy aimed at falsifying historical memory and altering the ethnic and cultural identity of the region.

The 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees confirms the right of return as one of the important requirements of international law, the restoration of the rights of persons displaced as a result of ethnic cleansing. In this regard, ensuring the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of Western Azerbaijanis forcibly expelled from the territory of present-day Armenia to their historical homeland, the restoration of their rights to housing, land, property, cultural and religious heritage should be assessed in the context of Armenia's international legal responsibility.

Conference venue and time: Washington, U.S. Congress, Kennedy Caucus Hall, Russell Senate Office Building, June 24, at 09:00.