YEREVAN.- The case Minas Sargsyan v Azerbaijan considered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can serve as a precedent, said Grigory Ayvazyan, head of the Assembly of Azerbaijani Armenians.

He considers that Azerbaijan risks going bankrupt as the total debt to Armenian refugees is over $100 billion.

On January 9 ECHR declared admissible two lawsuits filed by refugees – an Armenian and an Azerbaijani. The applicants are Elkhan Chiragov, former resident of Lachin (territory of security zone around Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) and former resident of Gulistan village of Shahumyan region (presently occupied by Azerbaijan) Minas Sargsyan.

The complaints were selected from over 1,000 similar cases (about 600 filed by Azerbaijani refugees and about 500 from Armenian refugees) last year to serve as a precedent. Both complaints say about loss of property as a result of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Chiragov’s complaint also includes certain ethnic and religious provisions. The Court is supposed to deliver its judgment on both cases at a later date.  

Grigory Ayvazyan told journalists that the choice of two mentioned cases is surprising. Chiragov’s case has no relation to Armenia, as the applicant addresses Nagorno-Karabakh, he added. He stressed that almost every Armenian family of refugees left a house and property in Azerbaijan.