«Two Important Developments on the Right of Return for Nagorno Karabakh Armenians»: Vartan Oskanian

Two years have passed since Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno Karabakh, which led to the exodus of its entire Armenian population, and the issue of return continues to gain undeniable international traction. I want to share two important developments.
In Washington, the State Department has registered progress by acknowledging three priorities at the core of a just settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan: the right of Artsakh Armenians to return, the release of Armenian political prisoners held in Azerbaijan, and the protection of Armenian Christian cultural heritage. Congressman Frank Pallone announced today on the X platform that the State Department, responding to a letter sent several weeks ago by about 90 members of Congress to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has pledged to pursue these issues. This shift is the result of the persistent efforts of the Armenian National Committee of America, the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the People of Nagorno Karabakh, as well as Armenian-Americans and their allies. Against the backdrop of Baku’s denials and Yerevan’s silence, the U.S. has now spoken officially. The matter is no longer about recognition of these principles, but about their implementation.
At the same time today in Geneva, two members of the Swiss National Council, Erich Vontobel and Nicolas Walder, participated in a side event held during the annual session of the UN Human Rights Council. The event was initiated by Christian Solidarity International, with the support of the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the People of Nagorno Karabakh, and aimed to advance the Swiss peace initiative. Under its parliamentary mandate, Switzerland is now obliged to organize a peace forum between representatives of Azerbaijan and the representatives of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, with the clear purpose of negotiating the collective and safe return of the displaced Armenians. Joining them were Nagorno Karabakh’s former Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan and international lawyer Dr. Paul Williams, president of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), based in Washington. Their message was clear: the rights of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, not geopolitical interests alone, must form the foundation of any settlement.
These are not the only developments. The International Court of Justice has already obliged Azerbaijan to ensure the safe return of the displaced Armenians. The European Parliament has adopted two resolutions reaffirming the same principle. The French Parliament has spoken twice in that direction, joined by Belgium, and of course Switzerland with its unprecedented initiative. Taken together, all these decisions and resolutions point to a clear trend: the right of return is no longer only the demand of a dispossessed people, it is the will of the international community.
This is a significant convergence. On both sides of the Atlantic, lawmakers, diplomats, and representatives of civil society are affirming a simple truth: no peace can be lasting if built on the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people; no treaty can be just if it eliminates the right of tens of thousands to return to their homes; and no international order can be dignified if it remains silent in the face of the illegal detention of prisoners and the desecration of cultural heritage.
Azerbaijan, of course, completely rejects this. Nikol Pashinyan, however, has chosen to entirely ignore the issue, preferring to close the chapter on Nagorno Karabakh rather than defend the rights of his people. Yet this resistance, whether from Baku or from Yerevan, cannot erase the emerging consensus. The right of return remains on the international agenda.