Armenian Prime Minister’s adviser speaks on international law

Yeghishe Kirakosyan, advisor to the Prime Minister of Armenia and Armenia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights, spoke at the Gould School of Law Monday in a talk titled “How Small States Use International Law.” Kirakosyan discussed issues of sovereignty, justice and human rights against the backdrop of the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Beginning Sept. 13, Azerbaijan launched unprovoked attacks on Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh territory, an area of historical tension between the two former Soviet republics. The territory, while internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan, has a majority Armenian ethnic population and has claimed independence since the late Soviet period. Though a ceasefire halted the recent attacks, many Armenian students at USC worry that future escalation of the conflict will lead to a full-scale war that will threaten Armenia’s long-term sovereignty and survival on the international stage.

“The major triggers for legal proceedings were the actions that broke many natural violations of human rights for crimes committed, and this has inevitably led Armenia to initiate proceedings,” Kirakosyan said.

Salpi Ghazarian, the director of USC’s Institute of Armenian Studies, introduced Kirakosyan to the audience. Kirakosyan studied at Yerevan State University, where he earned a master’s degree in law and jurisprudence and a Ph.D. in international law. Kirakosyan then went on to earn a second master’s degree in law and international legal studies from Georgetown University.

In his talk, Kirakosyan outlined the steps that Armenia has taken to initiate proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice, the main court of the United Nations. The proceedings involved a request that Azerbaijan abide by certain conditions of humane treatment, particularly regarding their treatment of civilians.

“It is very difficult to escape the ethnic and racist policies which have created favorable conditions for crimes against humanity, which eventually can unfortunately lead to a genocide,” Kirakosyan said about international law.

Kirakosyan mentioned the example of the theme park Azerbaijan built after the 44-day war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020. The theme park depicted scenes from Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia, and many Armenians decried it as racist. Kirakosyan said that Armenia requested that the park be shut down, and eventually Azerbaijan removed the mannequins and helmets used to depict Armenian soldiers.

“We saw behavioral change, and we saw a letter confirming it had been moved and we had the public commitment from the country that they would not display those articles again,” Kirakosyan said. “That’s a small behavioral change that largely I described.” 

Ghazarian said that the way Kirakosyan’s description of his work seemingly skips over humanitarian tragedy and focuses only on legal issues is indicative of his training as a jurist.

“He’s dispassionate and quite clinical in the way in which he is explaining, but that is what jurists have to do to stop man’s inhumanity to man,” she said.

Kirakosyan also highlighted the difficulties that Armenia faces on the international stage as a small state because of their limited resources. Furthermore, enforcement poses challenges, he said. 

“There is a huge effort on paper, but it’s really hard to enforce the actual conditions of interest,” Kirakosyan said. “You cannot undo the decades-long public racist policies in one day. That’s not possible. I understand that. It will take the next generation.”

Kirakosyan said that legal processes can be long and arduous. Though he has been working on these proceedings for years, it is easy to feel helpless in the face of continuing conflict, but he remains hopeful, he said.

“I do believe that, although I don’t see the immediate impact now, I know that in the long run, these legal proceedings are leading to very important qualifications … and you can use these qualifications in a political and different world,” he said.

Samuel Agustin, a freshman majoring in international relations, said the event contributed to opening his world view.

“I am just one mind,” he said. “And there’s always going to be a little bit of bias from where I come from. So just having other voices that contribute to my worldview really helped me to get an understanding for people around the world.”