Lawyer deplores withdrawal of Armenia's lawsuits against Azerbaijan

Siranush Sahakyan, President of the International and Comparative Law Center, warns that Armenia’s withdrawal of interstate lawsuits against Azerbaijan undermines one of the country’s few effective tools of leverage. Speaking at a discussion on the rights of Armenian prisoners held in Baku on Wednesday, she stressed that legal proceedings were so crucial that the draft peace treaty between the two countries includes provisions on them.

According to Sahakyan, Azerbaijan invested significant efforts during negotiations to secure the withdrawal of Armenia’s lawsuits and even launched artificial court cases to increase pressure. She argued that this reflects how damaging international legal action can be for Baku, as it exposes human rights violations and challenges its aggressive policies.

“Armenia has not been able to secure victories in the military or political spheres,” Sahakyan noted. “The only area where we have achieved real success through both interstate and individual cases has been the legal arena. By pulling back, we are abandoning the only field where we have been winning and remaining in arenas where we have consistently faced defeat and humiliation.”