MP says certain forces in world support separatism
By Rashid Shirinov
National self-determination, the principle that US President Woodrow Wilson put on the international agenda in 1918, is generally defined as the right of a people to form its own state.
Following the end of Cold War, self-determination became an acute issue, while some tried to use the rhetoric of national self-determination as a convenient pretext for separatism.
Earlier Kurds in Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence for the country’s Kurdistan Region. This week in Spain, some 7.5 million Catalans have raised the same question.
Certain circles and forces in the world support separatism, Azerbaijani MP Bakhtiyar Aliyev said, commenting on the illegal referendum in Catalonia.
Naming this step as a thoughtful scenario, Aliyev said this is aimed at changing direction of the processes going on in the world.
“There are certain circles and forces who, by supporting separatism, are trying to redraw the world map and use it for their advantage,” he told Trend.
Aliyev added that this is the result of the double standards policy of international structures – the UN, OSCE, EU, PACE - which led to the fact that we are witnessing separatism in Europe.
“These processes can lead to very sad consequences in the future. These processes must be urgently stopped, separatists must be sanctioned and put under pressure,” said the MP.
Many experts believe that the illegal referendum in Catalonia may lead to insecurity in Europe and result in dismemberment of a number of European countries.
Azerbaijan for many years suffers from separatism, as Armenians living in the country’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, stirred up by interested circles in neighboring Armenia, held an illegal referendum on the region's secession from Azerbaijan in early 1990s. This was followed by the most brutal battles of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Today, 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions are still under Armenian occupation and the occupier rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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