NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC RECOGNITION DOESN’T VIOLATE AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2009 16:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic doesn’t
violate Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and doesn’t threaten its
existence, according to an NKR official.

"The principle of territorial integrity is not applicable to Azerbaijan
by a number of reasons. Above all, Nagorno Karabakh has never been
de jure part of Azerbaijan," Ruben Zargaryan, historian and adviser
to Foreign Minister of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, said in an
interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.

"Bogged down in continuous threats, Baku officials undermine the talks
and neglect the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, including those
of peaceful resolution of conflicts and non-use of force," he said.

Zargaryan emphasized that the international law says that the principle
of territorial integrity doesn’t run counter to the right of nations
to self-determination.

"Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and even Kosovo proclaimed
independence irrespective of the position of former mother countries,
what conforms to new international approaches to democracy principles,
human rights protection, ethnic peace and regional stability," he said.

"The Kosovo model is classified as UDI (Unilateral Declaration of
Independence). I would like to emphasize that the international
law doesn’t have norms which oblige a self-determined state to ask
for mother country’s permission to secede. And last but not least,
by its democratic development index, Nagorno Karabakh passes ahead
of Kosovo. The same refers to Serbia and Azerbaijan."