On 19 October 2016, an academic conference was held in the University of Bern on the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights on the case of Chiragov and others v. Armenia.

The conference was moderated by Prof. Denise Brühl-Moser, and presentations were made by Prof. Hans-Joachim Heintze from the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (Bochum, Germany), Dr. Valentina Azarova, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Global Public Law (CGPL), Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey), Dr. Gabriel Lansky, Partner at Lansky, Ganzger und Partner Law Firm, which represented Azerbaijan as a third party to the case, Mr. Çingiz Əsgərov, Agent of the Government of Azerbaijan before the European Court of Human Rights, and Mr. Rahmi Dogan, Chairman & Managing Director in Mergen Consulting.

The speakers first talked about the historical and legal background of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It was substantiated why the Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh could only use their right for internal self-determination within the Republic of Azerbaijan. Further insight was given on the case of Chiragov and others v. Armenia, as well as the arguments provided by both Armenia as the respondent state and Azerbaijan as a third party. Although the Court didn’t have intention to define the act of aggression in this case, nevertheless it clearly stated in its judgement that Armenia was a party to conflict from the very outset and holds effective control of the occupied territories. Thus, the speaker affirmed the fact of occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by neighboring Armenia.

Being held in an interactive way, the conference was attended by the Swiss political and academic circles, university students and diplomatic corps accredited in Bern.