Tweet
SVANTE E. CORNELL: SITUATION IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS IN MANY WAYS SIMILAR TO THE ONE IN KOSOVO
Today
July 27 2010
Azerbaijan
Svante E. Cornell, Research Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus
Institute in Washington DC believes it might be that the International
Court of Justice ruling about Kosovo's breakaway declaration of
independence from Serbia has been somewhat misunderstood.
"There may not be anything illegal in terms of international law in a
declaration of independence; that would violate the law of the mother
country, in this case Serbia. But that a declaration of independence
is not illegal does not mean that it is recognized by the rest of
the world", Cornell said.
He mentioned that, judging these issues, one has to take a number of
things into account. But in case of Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation
is much different.
"One is the extent of human rights violations and the changes in
population structure. In the case of Kosovo, there was ethnic
cleansing committed against Kosovars by Serbia, which is what
triggered a multilateral international intervention under NATO. Thus,
international intervention restored the demographic status before the
war. In the cases of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh,
the situation is much different. ...There was massive ethnic cleansing
committed by the separatist side, especially in the cases of Karabakh
in 1992-93 and Abkhazia in 1993, as well as in South Ossetia in 2008.
Thus, these in many ways mirror images of the Kosovo situation,
strongly weakening the case for independence made by the separatists.
It is a long-standing principle of international law that it is
unacceptable to first alter the demographic situation and then make
political declarations of independence," the expert noted.
From: A. Papazian
Today
July 27 2010
Azerbaijan
Svante E. Cornell, Research Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus
Institute in Washington DC believes it might be that the International
Court of Justice ruling about Kosovo's breakaway declaration of
independence from Serbia has been somewhat misunderstood.
"There may not be anything illegal in terms of international law in a
declaration of independence; that would violate the law of the mother
country, in this case Serbia. But that a declaration of independence
is not illegal does not mean that it is recognized by the rest of
the world", Cornell said.
He mentioned that, judging these issues, one has to take a number of
things into account. But in case of Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation
is much different.
"One is the extent of human rights violations and the changes in
population structure. In the case of Kosovo, there was ethnic
cleansing committed against Kosovars by Serbia, which is what
triggered a multilateral international intervention under NATO. Thus,
international intervention restored the demographic status before the
war. In the cases of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh,
the situation is much different. ...There was massive ethnic cleansing
committed by the separatist side, especially in the cases of Karabakh
in 1992-93 and Abkhazia in 1993, as well as in South Ossetia in 2008.
Thus, these in many ways mirror images of the Kosovo situation,
strongly weakening the case for independence made by the separatists.
It is a long-standing principle of international law that it is
unacceptable to first alter the demographic situation and then make
political declarations of independence," the expert noted.
From: A. Papazian