Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Armenians to face even bigger tragedies as result of leadership’s irresponsible statements

29 August 2019 15:31 (UTC+04:00)
Armenians to face even bigger tragedies as result of leadership’s irresponsible statements

By Trend

By making irresponsible statements, propagating the "independent status" of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region on the one hand, and containing claims that "Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Armenia" on the other hand, the Armenian current leadership must understand that it leads the country and its people to even bigger tragedies, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Center for International Relations Analysis Farid Shafiyev said.

Shafiyev was commenting on the Armenian prime minister’s statements regarding the secession of Nagorno-Karabakh region from Azerbaijan, allegedly "similar" with Azerbaijan’s secession from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Trend reports.

He stressed that the Armenian side repeatedly voices such opinions, which are fictitious and unfounded from the point of view of law.

Shafiyev added that according to the Constitution of the USSR, only 15 Soviet republics had the right to leave the Soviet Union. Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. The autonomous regions did not have a right of leaving the Soviet Union.

"Yerevan has repeatedly made claims that the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh region from Azerbaijan was possible on the basis of the USSR law 'On the rules for resolving the issue related to the secession of a republic from the USSR' dated April 3, 1990,” he said. “According to the law, during the initiation of the process of the secession of a Soviet republic, its autonomous entity also has the right to make its independent choice to remain or leave the Soviet Union.”

“But Azerbaijan, like Armenia and other Soviet republics, left the Soviet Union on the basis of the Belovezha Accords on the collapse of the USSR dated December 8, 1991,” Shafiyev said. “Therefore, one cannot refer to the abovementioned law dated April 3, 1990, as neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia used this law to secede from the USSR."

He stressed that during the Soviet period, Yerevan repeatedly attempted to annex Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region legally and the last attempt was rejected on December 1, 1989, by the Soviet government because of a contradiction to the Constitution and the law.

“The 'referendum', held on December 10, 1991, without the consent of the Azerbaijani government and without the participation of the Azerbaijani population of the region, is also entirely illegal,” Shafiyev said.

“After proclaiming the independence, Azerbaijan and Armenia became the UN members on March 2, 1992,” he said. “Their borders were recognized on the basis of the "uti possidetis" principle, which confirms the territory of two countries within the borders of the Azerbaijani and Armenian Soviet Socialist Republics, where Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.”

“The UN Security Council and other international organizations reaffirmed this status,” Shafiyev said.

“The attempts of the Armenian nationalists to hide their irredentist claims to occupy Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region under the pretext of self-determination are unfounded both from a legal and historical points of view,” he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more