Situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in terms of Russian legislation

At a press conference held in Moscow titled ‘Fragile truce in the Karabakh conflict zone: how to keep the peace?' the historian and political analyst, candidate of Historical Sciences Oleg Kuznetsov, drew attention to the legal issues – how this conflict and the current situation around Nagorno-Karabakh are seen from the standpoint of Russian legislation.

"Is there at least one state in the world, except Armenia, which is a party of the Karabakh conflict, that does not recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan? Russia, Turkey, Iran, Georgia, the United States, France, the members of the UN Security Council, both permanent as well as non-permanent, none of these countries has stated that it does not recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Accordingly, from the point of view of international law, Azerbaijan and the land which is occupied now by Armenia are an integral part of Azerbaijan," the expert concluded.

He recalled that that there is no country that recognizes the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. "Therefore, the structures that are located on the territory and loudly called ‘Artsakh’, especially the military structures, in terms of the criminal legislation of the RF, article 208 of the Criminal Code, are illegal armed groups. It is possible that there is another point of view of Armenia, but from the point of view of the Russian Criminal Code it is exactly this way,’’ Kuznetsov said.

After the escalation of the conflict on April 2nd, the Armenian Ministry of Defense published a list of the dead and the places of their burial. ‘’There is no Karabakh resident on this list. This means that any people present from the occupying forces on the territory of Armenia are either military mercenaries or participants in illegal armed groups from the viewpoint of Russian legislation. Based on this, who can prohibit the sovereign state of Republic of Azerbaijan from eliminating criminals on their territory?" the expert asked rhetorically. 

"Who can prevent the elimination of criminals from the point of view of the norms of Russian criminal law? If this is the case, another question arises: how should the conflict between illegal armed groups and a sovereign state be resolved? The sovereign state must either destroy or displace them to where they originated from its territory, or allow them to disperse among the citizens of neighboring countries. That is, to allow the criminals to leave their territory, so that they can continue their criminal activities on the territories of neighboring countries. There is only one reasonable option for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from the point of view of the system of Russian legislation: Armenia takes the criminals from the territory of Azerbaijan, dispenses justice on them on its own territory and simultaneously transfers the occupied territories to Azerbaijan's jurisdiction. There are no other options, unfortunately, from the point of view of the system of Russian legislation,’’ Kuznetsov said.