Switzerland’s lower house of parliament adopted a corresponding resolution in December. The Swiss upper house is scheduled to debate the resolution next week.
The exiled Karabakh leaders hope that its passage will prompt the Swiss government to raise the issue in the international arena. In a statement released on Tuesday, Yerevan-based members of the Karabakh parliament said they will appeal to the government to “use its proven role as a neutral mediator in initiating international discussions on the forcibly displaced Artsakh residents’ right of return.”
More than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians, the region’s virtually entire remaining population, fled to Armenia in the space of a week following the Azerbaijani assault condemned by the United States and the European Union.
Azerbaijan denies forcing the Karabakh Armenians to flee their homes and says they can live there under Azerbaijani rule. Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents rejected such an option even before the exodus. Some of those leaders have said that only “international guarantees” could convince the refugees to return home.
Armenia’s government, which has accused Baku of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, is not seeking such guarantees. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly indicated that the Karabakh issue is closed for his administration.
One of the Karabakh lawmakers, Vahram Balayan, said this is why he and his colleagues are now pinning their hopes on Switzerland.
“That’s a more difficult path, but nothing is impossible when you do some work [for that purpose,]” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Echoing statements by other Karabakh leaders as well as Armenian opposition figures, Balayan said that Pashinian’s government cannot stop Baku from demanding more concessions from Armenia by helping it get away with the 2023 ethnic cleansing.