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AN ADDRESS TO THE OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS
15:42 31.03.2014
ISCE Minsk Group, Nagorno-Karabakh
The Political Science Association of Armenia in its session of March
29, 2014, adopted an Address to the Heads of the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-chairs on the settlement of the Karabakh Conflict in connection
with the unbecoming to the status of a head of state attacks of
the Azerbaijani President on the Armenian people and undisguised
territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia. Because of the danger
of political behavior of the head of neighboring state to the peace and
stability in the region on March 31, 2014, the text of the Address has
been delivered to the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
the States - Permanent Members of the UN Security Council: H.E. Tian
Changchun (China), H.E. Henri Reynaud (France), H.E. Ivan Volinkin
(Russia), H.E. Katherine Leach (the UK), H.E. John Heffern (the
US). The Text of the Address has been also disseminated among all
International Missions accredited in the Republic of Armenia. Below
is the full text of the address, presented by the Chairman of the
Political Science Association of Armenia, Doctor of Political Science
Hayk Kotanjian.
"On March 19, 2014, at the nationwide festivities of Nowruz, the
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a number of groundless
statements, regarding which the Political Science Association of
Armenia feels obligated to address the Heads of the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs - Honorable Presidents of France, the Russian Federation,
and the United States of America.
Judging by the political content, the choice of the date for the
Azerbaijani "royal" leader's speech was conditioned not only by the
desire to congratulate his people on the occasion of Nowruz â"~@
a holiday that dates back to the Iranian culture, but also by the
intention to use the current international political situation for
the benefit of the Azerbaijani President's traditional policy of
torpedoing the process of peace settlement of the Karabakh conflict,
mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
Along with a bunch of Armenophobic clichés, such as "Armenia
is a fascist state", an arbitrary interpretation of the norms and
principles of International law, the concepts of "historical justice"
and "historical lands", as well as territorial claims to the Republic
of Armenia, fraught with actual threat of war, the mentioned speech
contains some other formulations incompatible with the status of a
head of state.
The key message of Aliyev's speech is that the territorial integrity
of a state, Azerbaijan in this case, cannot be violated without the
state's consent, so the settlement under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk
Group seeks to "restore" the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and
return the Azerbaijanis to the "ancient Azerbaijani lands", which,
in his opinion, include a significant portion of the territory of
the Republic of Armenia. The Azerbaijani President's militaristic
interpretation of the right to self-determination, although contradicts
the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter, Paragraph 2, Article 1,
Chapter I, reading: "To develop friendly relations among nations based
on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination
of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen
universal peace", yet fully reflects the essence of his credo.
The President of our neighboring state, declaring that "the
international law coupled with the force factor"comes to the forefront
in the contemporary international relations, distorts the gist of the
latter. This statement of the head of the neighboring country contains
a new threat of genocidal acts against the Armenians of the RA and
NKR, like the massacres committed by the Azerbaijani authorities
against the Armenian population in Sumgait, Kirovabad (Arm. Gandzak)
and Baku in 1988-1990. This threat of systemic violence proclaimed
by the Azerbaijani President is perceived particularly ominous as we
approach the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
In his statements, the leader of the neighboring state proceeds from
the ungrounded premise that the self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh
is not legitimate, because the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic as a product of the referendum of December 10, 1991, carried
out in compliance with Article 6 of the USSR Law of April 3, 1990, "On
Procedures for Regulation of Issues Related to Secession of the Union
Republics from the USSR", was not agreed with the Azerbaijani SSR. The
reality was that, Azerbaijan, having declared its withdrawal from the
Soviet state and the Soviet jurisdiction prior to the referendum in
Nagorno-Karabakh, legislatively fixed the waiver of the necessity to
coordinate with it the further fate of Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover,
on November 26, 1991, in violation of Article 3 of said USSR Law,
imperatively preserving "the right of peoples of autonomous republics
and autonomous entities to decide independently whether to remain
in the USSR or in a seceding union republic, as well as to pose the
question of the legal status of their state", Azerbaijan adopted
the law on abolition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. And
this despite the fact that, at the decline of the USSR, namely in
the referendum on preservation of the Soviet Union, held on March
17, 1991, the vast majority of the Azerbaijani SSR population voted
for keeping the Soviet Union. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
did not participate in voting. It should be noted, that the Mission
on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh of the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe recognized the Azerbaijan Law of November
26, 1991, on abolition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast as
unconstitutional. In addition, in order to clarify the political and
historical, political and legal bases of the relationship between
the equal Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (the Artsakh Republic) and the
Republic of Azerbaijan, it is important to pay attention to the
undeniable political and legal fact of Nagorno-Karabakh never being
a part of independent Azerbaijan.
In the historically complex period at issue, Nagorno-Karabakh based
on the principle of equality of peoples under the supervision of
international observers exercised its right to self-determination
through the nationwide referendum on December 10, 1991, in full
compliance with the requirements of international law and pursuant
to the then-effective Soviet legislation. In addition, the final
political and legal formalization of the results of the referendum
under the provisions of the USSR Law "On Procedures for Regulation
of Issues Related to Secession of the UnionRepublics from the USSR"
of April 3, 1990, ruled out any coordination with the Azerbaijani SSR
and the USSR because they had been formally abolished by then. At
the same time, it is important to note that, by the documents of
the Commission for Nagorno-Karabakh referendum and in line with the
letter of the UN Charter, the Azerbaijani minority was granted equal
rights with the Armenian majority to free expression of will. Despite
this, the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh, at the directions of Baku
authorities, had to waive their right to participate in the referendum.
Thus, the legal self-determination of NKR and the declaration of
state independence took place within the context of the downfall of
the single union state and emergence of new nations, including the
Republic of Azerbaijan.
Neither well-founded are Ilham Aliyev's attitudes from the perspective
of the UN International Court of Justice, which, based on Paragraph 2,
Article 1, Chapter I of the UN Charter, in its Advisory Opinion of July
22, 2010, announced the following conclusion: "No general prohibition
against unilateral declarations of independence may be inferred from
the practice of the Security Council... General international law
contains no applicable prohibition of declarations of independence".
In its turn, Ilham Aliyev's comment on stirring up "international
law coupled with the force factor" gives rise to doubts regarding
the inadequate perception of the theory and practice of contemporary
international relations by the Head of State - President of Azerbaijan.
The philosophy of contemporary international relations implies
prioritized pursuit of ways for peaceful political resolution of
issues on the basis of the fundamental principles of international
law, including the peoples' right to freely determine their own fate
refraining from the use or threat of force. This is the approach
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries adopted in their continued
efforts to prevent the escalation of the Karabakh conflict and find
a mutually acceptable peaceful solution to it.
The Political Science Association of Armenia considers this publicly
proclaimed Armenophobic and bellicose rhetoric as another attempt
by the head of the neighboring state to withdraw from a peaceful,
constructive dialogue, a disregard for the efforts of the international
partners, and reluctance to take political responsibility for
establishing a lasting peace between the peoples of Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the peoples of the entire region. Substitution of the
existing problem of protecting democratic freedoms and human rights
in his own state for creating an enemy image of the Armenian people,
and the accents placed by President Aliyev corroborate his rejection
of democratization of Azerbaijan. All of this gives reason to attract
the world community attention, including the honest sons and daughters
of the Azerbaijani people, to the fact that the hereditary regime
of the Republic of Azerbaijan continues undermining the OSCE Minsk
Group efforts to build trust between the parties to the Karabakh
conflict, rejecting the truth and thereby the recognition of the
legality of the 1991 referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh, the legitimacy
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as a realistic ground for peaceful
coexistence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples.
On behalf of Armenia's community of professional political scientists,
the Political Science Association appeals to the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs with a request to draw the attention of the President of
the Republic of Azerbaijan to the inadmissibility for an official
of a head-of-state status to arbitrarily interpret the norms of
international law, sponsor the distortion of the historical truth,
the propaganda of xenophobia and war, as these contradict the values,
mission, goals and principles of the UN, the OSCE and the OSCE
Minsk Group."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/03/31/an-address-to-the-osce-minsk-group-co-chairs/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
15:42 31.03.2014
ISCE Minsk Group, Nagorno-Karabakh
The Political Science Association of Armenia in its session of March
29, 2014, adopted an Address to the Heads of the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-chairs on the settlement of the Karabakh Conflict in connection
with the unbecoming to the status of a head of state attacks of
the Azerbaijani President on the Armenian people and undisguised
territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia. Because of the danger
of political behavior of the head of neighboring state to the peace and
stability in the region on March 31, 2014, the text of the Address has
been delivered to the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
the States - Permanent Members of the UN Security Council: H.E. Tian
Changchun (China), H.E. Henri Reynaud (France), H.E. Ivan Volinkin
(Russia), H.E. Katherine Leach (the UK), H.E. John Heffern (the
US). The Text of the Address has been also disseminated among all
International Missions accredited in the Republic of Armenia. Below
is the full text of the address, presented by the Chairman of the
Political Science Association of Armenia, Doctor of Political Science
Hayk Kotanjian.
"On March 19, 2014, at the nationwide festivities of Nowruz, the
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a number of groundless
statements, regarding which the Political Science Association of
Armenia feels obligated to address the Heads of the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs - Honorable Presidents of France, the Russian Federation,
and the United States of America.
Judging by the political content, the choice of the date for the
Azerbaijani "royal" leader's speech was conditioned not only by the
desire to congratulate his people on the occasion of Nowruz â"~@
a holiday that dates back to the Iranian culture, but also by the
intention to use the current international political situation for
the benefit of the Azerbaijani President's traditional policy of
torpedoing the process of peace settlement of the Karabakh conflict,
mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
Along with a bunch of Armenophobic clichés, such as "Armenia
is a fascist state", an arbitrary interpretation of the norms and
principles of International law, the concepts of "historical justice"
and "historical lands", as well as territorial claims to the Republic
of Armenia, fraught with actual threat of war, the mentioned speech
contains some other formulations incompatible with the status of a
head of state.
The key message of Aliyev's speech is that the territorial integrity
of a state, Azerbaijan in this case, cannot be violated without the
state's consent, so the settlement under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk
Group seeks to "restore" the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and
return the Azerbaijanis to the "ancient Azerbaijani lands", which,
in his opinion, include a significant portion of the territory of
the Republic of Armenia. The Azerbaijani President's militaristic
interpretation of the right to self-determination, although contradicts
the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter, Paragraph 2, Article 1,
Chapter I, reading: "To develop friendly relations among nations based
on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination
of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen
universal peace", yet fully reflects the essence of his credo.
The President of our neighboring state, declaring that "the
international law coupled with the force factor"comes to the forefront
in the contemporary international relations, distorts the gist of the
latter. This statement of the head of the neighboring country contains
a new threat of genocidal acts against the Armenians of the RA and
NKR, like the massacres committed by the Azerbaijani authorities
against the Armenian population in Sumgait, Kirovabad (Arm. Gandzak)
and Baku in 1988-1990. This threat of systemic violence proclaimed
by the Azerbaijani President is perceived particularly ominous as we
approach the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
In his statements, the leader of the neighboring state proceeds from
the ungrounded premise that the self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh
is not legitimate, because the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic as a product of the referendum of December 10, 1991, carried
out in compliance with Article 6 of the USSR Law of April 3, 1990, "On
Procedures for Regulation of Issues Related to Secession of the Union
Republics from the USSR", was not agreed with the Azerbaijani SSR. The
reality was that, Azerbaijan, having declared its withdrawal from the
Soviet state and the Soviet jurisdiction prior to the referendum in
Nagorno-Karabakh, legislatively fixed the waiver of the necessity to
coordinate with it the further fate of Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover,
on November 26, 1991, in violation of Article 3 of said USSR Law,
imperatively preserving "the right of peoples of autonomous republics
and autonomous entities to decide independently whether to remain
in the USSR or in a seceding union republic, as well as to pose the
question of the legal status of their state", Azerbaijan adopted
the law on abolition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. And
this despite the fact that, at the decline of the USSR, namely in
the referendum on preservation of the Soviet Union, held on March
17, 1991, the vast majority of the Azerbaijani SSR population voted
for keeping the Soviet Union. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
did not participate in voting. It should be noted, that the Mission
on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh of the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe recognized the Azerbaijan Law of November
26, 1991, on abolition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast as
unconstitutional. In addition, in order to clarify the political and
historical, political and legal bases of the relationship between
the equal Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (the Artsakh Republic) and the
Republic of Azerbaijan, it is important to pay attention to the
undeniable political and legal fact of Nagorno-Karabakh never being
a part of independent Azerbaijan.
In the historically complex period at issue, Nagorno-Karabakh based
on the principle of equality of peoples under the supervision of
international observers exercised its right to self-determination
through the nationwide referendum on December 10, 1991, in full
compliance with the requirements of international law and pursuant
to the then-effective Soviet legislation. In addition, the final
political and legal formalization of the results of the referendum
under the provisions of the USSR Law "On Procedures for Regulation
of Issues Related to Secession of the UnionRepublics from the USSR"
of April 3, 1990, ruled out any coordination with the Azerbaijani SSR
and the USSR because they had been formally abolished by then. At
the same time, it is important to note that, by the documents of
the Commission for Nagorno-Karabakh referendum and in line with the
letter of the UN Charter, the Azerbaijani minority was granted equal
rights with the Armenian majority to free expression of will. Despite
this, the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh, at the directions of Baku
authorities, had to waive their right to participate in the referendum.
Thus, the legal self-determination of NKR and the declaration of
state independence took place within the context of the downfall of
the single union state and emergence of new nations, including the
Republic of Azerbaijan.
Neither well-founded are Ilham Aliyev's attitudes from the perspective
of the UN International Court of Justice, which, based on Paragraph 2,
Article 1, Chapter I of the UN Charter, in its Advisory Opinion of July
22, 2010, announced the following conclusion: "No general prohibition
against unilateral declarations of independence may be inferred from
the practice of the Security Council... General international law
contains no applicable prohibition of declarations of independence".
In its turn, Ilham Aliyev's comment on stirring up "international
law coupled with the force factor" gives rise to doubts regarding
the inadequate perception of the theory and practice of contemporary
international relations by the Head of State - President of Azerbaijan.
The philosophy of contemporary international relations implies
prioritized pursuit of ways for peaceful political resolution of
issues on the basis of the fundamental principles of international
law, including the peoples' right to freely determine their own fate
refraining from the use or threat of force. This is the approach
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries adopted in their continued
efforts to prevent the escalation of the Karabakh conflict and find
a mutually acceptable peaceful solution to it.
The Political Science Association of Armenia considers this publicly
proclaimed Armenophobic and bellicose rhetoric as another attempt
by the head of the neighboring state to withdraw from a peaceful,
constructive dialogue, a disregard for the efforts of the international
partners, and reluctance to take political responsibility for
establishing a lasting peace between the peoples of Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the peoples of the entire region. Substitution of the
existing problem of protecting democratic freedoms and human rights
in his own state for creating an enemy image of the Armenian people,
and the accents placed by President Aliyev corroborate his rejection
of democratization of Azerbaijan. All of this gives reason to attract
the world community attention, including the honest sons and daughters
of the Azerbaijani people, to the fact that the hereditary regime
of the Republic of Azerbaijan continues undermining the OSCE Minsk
Group efforts to build trust between the parties to the Karabakh
conflict, rejecting the truth and thereby the recognition of the
legality of the 1991 referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh, the legitimacy
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as a realistic ground for peaceful
coexistence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples.
On behalf of Armenia's community of professional political scientists,
the Political Science Association appeals to the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs with a request to draw the attention of the President of
the Republic of Azerbaijan to the inadmissibility for an official
of a head-of-state status to arbitrarily interpret the norms of
international law, sponsor the distortion of the historical truth,
the propaganda of xenophobia and war, as these contradict the values,
mission, goals and principles of the UN, the OSCE and the OSCE
Minsk Group."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/03/31/an-address-to-the-osce-minsk-group-co-chairs/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress