Azerbaijan blasts separatist Karabakh over citizenship bill
Ekho, Baku
9 Feb 05
Text of R. Orucov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 9 February
headlined “‘Double citizenship’ in Nagornyy Karabakh”
The head of the Nagornyy Karabakh “Foreign Ministry”, Arman Melikyan,
has said that a “draft law on citizenship of the NKR [Nagornyy
Karabakh republic]” has been drafted on the initiative and with the
direct participation of the “ministry”, Ekho has reported.
Speaking about the main provisions of the “draft law”, Arman
Melikyan pointed to the importance of the “NKR” citizens’ right to
dual citizenship. He said the law would protect the rights of all
citizens regardless of their origin, race or ethnicity.
“The citizenship of the ‘NKR’ (quotation marks have been inserted by
us here and throughout – editor) will be provided to those who were
born on the territories which have become part of the ‘NKR’, Shaumyan
District, Getashen [village of Caykand in Azerbaijan’s Xanlar District]
and the Nagornyy Karabakh autonomous region,” the “minister” said.
The Azerbaijani authorities reacted to the separatist statement
yesterday [8 February]. The reaction was voiced by the head of the
Foreign Ministry’s public relations department, Tahir Tagizada.
“Nagornyy Karabakh is recognized by the international community as
a constituent part of the Azerbaijani Republic. Therefore, any such
initiative by the authorities of the self-style republic cannot be
construed as legal. Namely, this holds true for the ‘draft law on
citizenship of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic’. This initiative
is yet another attempt aimed at undermining the ongoing peace
negotiations. Both the fact that residents of Nagornyy Karabakh
travel outside on Armenian passports and the illegal settlement which
continues in the occupied Azerbaijani territories is another attempt
to annex the occupied territories of the Azerbaijani Republic.”
International lawyer Erkin Qadirov has told Ekho that such legal acts
by an unrecognized state have no legal effect.
“Laws adopted by an illegitimate regime cannot be legitimate. This is
not the first time the separatists have issued such a statement. They
have already adopted ‘laws’ to protect private property and foreign
investment. All these have no legal effect. Issues such as property
and other rights, travel regulations and citizenship cannot be resolved
until the conflict is fully resolved,” Qadirov said.
Qadirov sees Melikyan’s statement as a purely populist move “intended
to justify the policy of settling the territories outside Nagornyy
Karabakh. They allege that the Armenians deported from other parts of
Azerbaijan are being re-settled in these areas. The separatists have
made such statements before. The difference is that this time they
want to make things look official. And considering the fact that this
is happening at the time of the OSCE monitoring, it appears that the
‘law’ is being prepared in an effort to justify the policy of illegal
settlement.”