Summary

Non-signatory Armenia says it cannot accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions until its dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh and other territories is resolved. Armenia has participated in meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2021. It voted in favor of a key annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Armenian forces used or supplied cluster munitions to Nagorno-Karabakh forces who used them in September-October 2020 on Azerbaijan, during the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia denied this use and has long stated that it does not produce, export, stockpile, or use cluster munitions, and has no intent to do so.

Policy

The Republic of Armenia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Armenia says that it cannot consider joining the convention until its conflict with Azerbaijan is resolved, including the status of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.[1] Nagorno-Karabakh is claimed by Azerbaijan but under the control of a breakaway governing authority.

Armenia did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2]

Armenia has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, most recently the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021. This marked Armenia’s first participation in a meeting of the convention since 2014.[3] Armenia did not elaborate its views on the convention but drew attention to Azerbaijan’s use of cluster munitions in October 2020.[4]

In December 2021, Armenia voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that called on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[5] In 2020, Armenia voted in favor of this annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention for the first time. Previously, Armenia abstained from voting on the resolution in 2015–2019.

Armenia is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2012–2014, Armenia stated several times that it did not produce, export, stockpile, or use cluster munitions and had no interest in doing so.[6] However, the 2020 conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh strongly suggests that Armenia has acquired cluster munitions and used them. A representative of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied in November 2022 that Armenia possesses cluster munitions.[7]

Armenia reportedly acquired six BM-30 Smerch multi-barrel rocket launchers from Russia in 2016 and 2017.[8] Use of these weapons in 2020 indicates that Armenia received the 300mm Smerch cluster munition rocket variant, which contains 72 9N235 or 9N210 fragmentation submunitions.

Use

There is no evidence that Armenia used cluster munitions in 2021 or during the first half of 2022.

Armenia last used cluster munitions in September–October 2020 during fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. There is compelling evidence that Armenian forces used Smerch cluster munition rockets or supplied them to Nagorno-Karabakh forces who used them in attacks in Gizilhajili on 3 October; in Tapgaragoyunlu on 23 October; in Kebirli on 24 October; in Garayusifli on 27 October; and in Barda on 28 October.[9]

In a statement to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 25 November 2020, Armenia did not deny using cluster munitions in the conflict, but focused attention on Azerbaijan’s use of cluster munitions.[10] A representative from Armenia’s Ministry of Defense said on 28 October that reports and allegations of cluster munition use by Armenia in Barda were “groundless and false.”[11]

There is evidence that at least two types of ground-fired cluster munition rockets were used in Nagorno-Karabakh in the first week of April 2016, during fighting across the line of contact separating local Armenian-backed separatists and Azerbaijani forces. Armenia’s Ministry of Defense published photographs showing the remnants of 300mm Smerch cluster munition rockets that it claimed were fired by Azerbaijani forces into Nagorno-Karabakh.[12]

There is cluster munition contamination in Nagorno-Karabakh dating from the 1988–1994 conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.[13] There are also reports of cluster munition contamination in other occupied parts of Azerbaijan, adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, which are under the control of Armenian forces.[14]

(See separate Monitor Ban Policy profile on Nagorno-Karabakh for more information.)