Summary: Non-signatory Armenia states that it cannot join the convention until a settlement is reached to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and unless Azerbaijan also joins. Armenia has participated as an observer in three annual meetings of the convention, most recently in 2014. Armenia declared in 2012 that it does not produce, export, stockpile, or use cluster munitions, and does not intend to do so.

There is credible evidence that cluster munitions were used in Nagorno-Karabakh in April 2016. Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of using the weapon, and both denied it.

Policy

The Republic of Armenia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Armenia has consistently stated that it cannot join unless Azerbaijan does so and a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reached.[1]

In September 2014, Armenia told States Parties that its participation as an observer in the convention’s annual meeting demonstrates how it hopes to join the convention, but not at this time due to the security situation in the south Caucuses and the “war-like attitude of Azerbaijan.”[2] In April 2013, a representative stated, “Armenia fully supports the aims of the Convention and hopes that the circumstances will change sometime soon and a positive decision will be taken.”[3]

Unlike Azerbaijan and other non-signatories, Armenia abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 7 December 2015, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Armenia did not explain why it abstained on the non-binding resolution that 139 states voted to adopt.

Armenia did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]

Armenia participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011–2012, and 2014, as well as the intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2013. Armenia was invited to, but did not attend the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.

In September 2014, Armenia expressed concern at new use of cluster munitions in various conflicts, describing this as “a grave violation” of international humanitarian law.[6]

Armenia has not joined the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Since 2012, Armenia has stated several times that it does not produce, export, stockpile, or use cluster munitions, and does not intend to do so.[7] Armenia has also said that it has not “encountered remnants of cluster munitions on the territory of Armenia.”[8]

Cluster munition contamination has been identified in Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory claimed by Azerbaijan but occupied and under the control of a breakaway governing authority since the 1988–1994 conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.[9] There are also reports of contamination in other parts of occupied Azerbaijan, adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, which are under the control of Armenian forces.[10]

There is visual evidence that two types of ground-fired cluster munition rockets were used in Nagorno-Karabakh during the first week of April 2016, during fighting across the line of contact separating local Armenian-backed separatists and Azerbaijani forces.

On 6 April 2016, a spokesperson from Armenia’s Ministry of Defense issued photographs showing the remnants of Smerch rockets that he claimed Azerbaijan fired into Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the article, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh “do not possess weaponry of this kind.”[11] (See the separate entry on Nagorno-Karabakh.)