At the meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus held prior to the session of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Peoples in Geneva on July 16, 2023, Lydia Margossian also spoke on the impact of militarization on the rights of indigenous peoples.

In particular, Ms. Margossian stressed that the growing militarization in Turkey and Azerbaijan, and the blockade imposed by the latter on the indigenous population of Artsakh, posed a serious threat to the territory’s 120,000 inhabitants. Ms. Margossian recalled that Artsakh was an integral part of Armenia, recognized in 1920, and that Western Armenia was the successor state.