The International Court of Justice’s decision on Kosovo must be applied to the Nagorno Karabakh

The Hague (Netherlands) - The International Court of Justice has given on Thursday, July 22, 2010, its advisory legal opinion on the conformity of Kosovo’s unilaterally proclaimed independence with regards to the International law.

The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy took note of the judge’s opinion who approved Kosovo’s proclamation of independence saying it “does not constitute a violation of general international law”, and anticipates the application of this decision to the Nagorno-Karabakh independence case.

The Federation considers that, although it is necessary to cautiously examine the contents and the arguments of the ICJ decision, this historical act is likely to soften the positions of the States and international authorities with respect to the independence of Karabakh.

According to the Federation, Karabakh has a legitimacy even more obvious than Kosovo to enjoy its right to self-determination for several reasons: “Nagorno-Karabakh never belonged to independent Azerbaijan, thus, there is noissue of Karabakh’s unilateral secession from Azerbaijan” declared Hilda Tchoboian, President of the European Armenian Federation. The process of independence initiated on September 2nd, 1991, confirmed by the referendum on December 10th, 1991 took place in strict respect of the internal rights in force in the USSR. Moreover, the Armenian population had been submitted to discriminations by the Azerbaijani authorities for decades, and was subjected to the typical Human Rights violations with, in particular, attempts of extermination and deportations by Azerbaijan. Lastly, in addition to the provisions of the international law pleading in favour of the right to self-determination, the Federation considers that the international law does not contain an explicit provision prohibiting people’s self-determination.

“The OSCE Minsk group will have to quickly integrate the ICJ decision in its peace process proposals” explained Hilda Tchoboian. “Azerbaijan did not have legitimacy to refuse the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh; after this legal document of international significance, and by extension of this one, International law prohibits Azerbaijan from rejecting the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh,” concluded Hilda Tchoboian.