Armenians of “Nagorno-Karabakh” have no right to self-determination

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

An Argentinean lawyer has stated that Armenians of Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region have no right to self-determination.

Marcelo Cohen, member of the Institute of International Law (Institut de Droit International) and professor of Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, made the remarks during an event in Azerbaijan’s capital city.

Baku hosted an event titled "The dispute over the Falkland / Malvinas Islands and international law" on August 19.

Parallels were drawn between the Falklands crisis and the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Cohen said international law should not be applied selectively, but in all cases, otherwise it is a manipulation.

On the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, he stressed that the people living there at the moment don’t have the status of a nation holding the right to self-determination.

“There is no such an understanding in the international politics as ‘the Nagorno-Karabakh people,’ whom the notion of self-determination of peoples could be applied to,” Cohen said.

The expert also said various aspects such as ethnic cleansing should be taken into account in this regard.

“Given the current situation, it is clear that in a certain area, the ethnic composition of the population differs from that of the population in other areas of the country. Assume that you make up the ethnic majority in a specific territory, but it does not give you the right to self-determination,” Cohen said.

He noted that Armenians living there have the rights of national minorities, but do not have the right to claim sovereignty.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, causing a brutal war in the early 1990s.

Referring to the principle of self-determination in international law, Armenians have tried to establish their second state in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan repeatedly stated that it can provide a high degree of autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh within its territorial integrity, but the Armenian side rejected it.

Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian, and French mediators over the past 20 years have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of Armenia’s military aggression, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from Azerbaijani territories.