The head of the Armenian department of the CIS Institute, Alexander Markarov, tried to compare the actions of his country on the occupation of Azeri Nagorno-Karabakh and the process of self-declared sovereignty of South Sudan. According to him, "the referendum is not interesting for the Armenian party, as it was held in Nagorno Karabakh 19 years ago and the following years "showed that Azerbaijan has no rights on this territory."
We should admit that Armenia has no right to hold any referendum on the occupied territory. It tries to present the Nagorno Karabakh conflict as an issue of self-identification of the nation. Baku will never let carrying out a referendum, as it contradicts the constitution of Azerbaijan.
As for South Sudan, here we have a classical example of self-determination of the nation. The holding of the referendum is legal in this case, as it was agreed by the central authorities and the South on the 9 of January 2005. This situation has nothing in common with Karabakh.
Markarov tried to unite the situation in Karabakh and self-identification in South Sudan and East Timor. He stated that even though in Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia there were no state permission for carrying out the referendum, it doesn't mean that these referendums were less legal than in South Sudan.
However, it is just what it means. These referendums were illegal. In South Sudan there is a process of self-identification of the nation with the permission of the central government. This circumstance makes the process legal from the point of view of the international law.
So much the more East Timor has nothing in common with either South Sudan or Nagorno Karabakh. It was admitted by the United Nations as a self-governing territory long before becoming independent. Nagorno Karabakh is not a self-governing territory or the nation governed by the foreign nation or a region involving in the process of self-identification with the governmental permission. It is an occupied by Armenia territory of Azerbaijan.
Kosovo and Eritrea are different cases too. There were intrastate conflicts. As for Karabakh, there was international conflict. In this case one independent state, Armenia, tries to occupy the territory of another independent state, Azerbaijan. How can we speak about the right of the nation on self-determination?
Why does the international society not support attempts of the Macedonian Albanians to self-determined? The answer is easy: no discrimination - no support. Azerbaijan has never oppressed residents of Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict is not between Azerbaijan and Karabakh, it is between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Armenian political scientists accuse the international society of double standards, claiming that the situation in Kosovo is the same as in Karabakh. No, it's not. If they don't know the principles of the international law, it doesn't mean that all other world experts are as ignorant as they are.
Regnum, Asif Javadov
