ARMENIAN EXPERT: CIS WEB-SITE HAS NOT PUBLISHED ANYTHING NEW

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.05.2007 16:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "It seams an entire group of people in Azerbaijan
work only to find any kind of statements in the internet which do
not blend with the official ideology of Baku and with the help of
governmental support to try to "correct" them," expert on international
law Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan commented to the PanARMENIAN.Net on some
articles published in Azeri media as if a "pro-Armenian" mistake was
committed in an information concerning Armenian, which was posted on
the web-site of CIS. Particularly, Baku is angry at an extract, which
says that Nagorno Karabakh was handed over to Azerbaijan by Moscow’s
decision in 1921. Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan said the CIS web-site has
not published anything new. "Nagorno Karabakh was rally put in the
boundaries of Azerbaijani SSR on July 5, 1921 (a misprint occurred in
the information, which indicates to 1920) by the decision of Caucasian
Bureau of Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) – a non-constitutional
party body of a third country. In fact, Russian Bolsheviks arbitrary
used an Armenian land (territory populated by Armenians!), handing
it over to soviet Azerbaijan," the Armenian expert underlined.

He thinks Azerbaijan fears from the fact that Karabakh was put namely
within the boundaries of soviet Azerbaijan. "Baku is well informed
that according to the Soviet legislation in case if any soviet republic
becomes independent, territories obtained by that republic during the
soviet reign should have been agreed with the Central authorities of
the USSR. I don’t speak even about the fact that self-determination
of the Azeri Republic in 1991 was carried out without referendum and
taking into account opinion of the population, which is characterized
by the international law as usurpation of territories first of all
populated with native nations. Azerbaijan also tried to usurp the power
in Nagorno Karabakh, however they did not succeed there. Armenians of
Nagorno Karabakh, who proclaimed their independence in accordance with
international and Union law, managed to protect their independence.

Actually and I’d like to draw attention to this fact, Nagorno Karabakh
has never been a part of Azerbaijan during the history: neither
in 1918-20, nor 1920-91 nor after it. Karabakh was put within the
bounds of soviet Azerbaijan from July of 1921 but only within the
USSR. Residents of Nagorno Karabakh were citizens of the USSR and
not Azerbaijan, they served in the Soviet Army, and not Azeri army,
they were living in the legal field of the USSR, and not Azerbaijan.

Nagorno Karabakh – a subject of USSR federation – had its
representatives in the Supreme body of the USSR.

Prosecutor of Nagorno Karabakh carried out the state inspectorate
of the region, who was appointed by the Prosecutor General of
the USSR. Thus, the matter is only about putting Nagorno Karabakh
within the boundaries of Azerbaijan, it was not a part of soviet
Azerbaijan. In this sense the CIS web-site has not provided the full
truth," Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan said.