German expert:' Karabakh population can not claim to self-determination'

Day, Az interviewed Director of the Network of Humanitarian Affairs in Germany, Bochum University professor, Hans-Joachim Heintze.

- Recently Baku hosted the II International Humanitarian Forum. What you can say about the major result and importance of the Baku Forum?

That scholars and experts from many countries were able to meet and to discuss new ideas. I was also impressed by the fast development of the country.

-What kind of role may such events play in intercultural dialogue, especially the dialogue between conflicting nations?

The main thing is that the civil society were able to meet and to discuss. Now they are going to put pressure on politics to solve some of the disputes between states.


-What can you say about the Karabakh problem? Are there really the contradictions between territorial integrity and self-determination right, which are equal (as some experts say) and therefore cannot be lifted by the international law? And why international community condemns violation of territorial integrity of Georgia but doesn’t do the same when it comes to Azerbaijan in Karabakh case?

I am not sure that the population of Karabakh can claim self determiniation. I tend to think that they are a minority and that they are entitled that the state respects their right to an own identity and other minority and human rights. On the other hand they have to be loyal to the state in which they live. The condamnation of of violations of international law is a political issue and not a legal one.

-May the self-determination right be implemented via ethnic cleansing and violation of the territorial integrity?

If one talks about the self-determination the first question arises: who is the holder of that right? The second question: what is the content of the right. My two answers: Minorities are not entitled to claim self-determination. And: Self determination does no mean always the establishment of statehood, there are other forms of implementation like internal self-determination.

-The UN Security Council adopted almost 20 years ago 4 resolutions on Karabakh conflict demanding withdrawal of Armenian troops from internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, but  these resolutions are still unimplemented (while resolutions concerning Libya for instance was implemented almost immediately). How you, being an expert of international law, can explain this situation? Is something wrong with the UN SC mechanism for decision’s implementation?

The UN SC is a political body and the decisions reflect political interests. If they are not going to implement their own resolutions one has to put that issue again on the agenda. It is a question of political pressure. many resolutions of the SC haven't been implemented (so in case of Palestine!); therefore keep the issue alive and make sure that you have the support of the civil society.

-There are many autonomy models in Europe that are proposed by Azerbaijan to Armenia for Nagorno Karabakh region. But Armenia declines all this proposals and demands only independence of this occupied internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan.

The regional and international peace is threatened if there are unsolved conflicts within a country or a region. Therefore there is a need to apply means of conflict settlement. I consider autonomy regulation beeing a possible solution. However, it seems that the parties to the conflict are not able to find such a settlement. Against this background I would recommend to establish a commission of experts from different countries and regions which are going to develop a proposal of an autonomy regulation which fits into the sitution and takes in consideration best practices. I am one of the authors of the Lund Recommendations of the OSCE High Commission on National Minorities and remember that one of goals of the Recommendation has been the collection of all the experiences with autonomy regulations worldwide. At the end we always need a case to case solution; however we should take in consideration other solutions to convince the parties to the conflict.


/Today.Az/