Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
The so-called constitutional referendum in the Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia, and in fact governed by Yerevan, is nothing more than another meaningless attempt of the Armenian authorities to disrupt the peace talks with Baku.
Protracting the process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement is not something new for the Armenian authorities.
Today, when the world has become well aware of the risk of Armenia’s undermining the settlement of the conflict, and is pushing Yerevan for action, talking about the unacceptability of maintaining the status quo, Armenian authorities simply have nothing else to do than to pull such a stunt by holding ‘constitutional referendum’ in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Certain signs of the situation in the Armenian domestic policy show that the idea to hold the illegitimate referendum Feb. 20 in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands belongs to Yerevan.
Representatives of the Dashnaksutyun party, which enjoys the permanent distrust of Yerevan and plays a role of the supervisory authority of the Armenian diaspora, were categorically against this procedure.
However, the internal Armenian romp in the dirty linen has nothing to do with the international law and eventually, the so-called referendum in the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh is the puppet regime’s ephemeral action calculated for domestic consumption.
However, the silence of the international community, which doesn’t seem to know that the next separatist regime is rushing for another flagrant violation of international law, is surprising. Moreover, the most surprising thing is the international community’s silence considering how long and actively it was exasperated by illegitimate referendums prepared in other separatist formations of the former Soviet Union. Then both on the eve and after this farce, the US State Department, EU, PACE and OSCE – all of them expressed their opinions.
Well, let’s wait for the world institutions’ reaction to the puppet referendum.
However, it is necessary to once again remind those world institutions that Yerevan's decision to hold a referendum in the Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia contradicts the position of the international community, which recognizes the region as part of Azerbaijan.
As a consequence, the referendum results will have no legal effect and no real consequences except for another Armenian provocation aimed at delaying the negotiations with Baku.
Moreover, an open violation of Azerbaijan’s constitution and norms of international law by Yerevan and its puppet regime, is a major cause for the international institutions to warn the Armenian authorities about the inadmissibility of violation of international norms.
The international institutions must remember that the UN has clearly defined its position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The UN Security Council’s Resolution 822 (adopted in 1993), Resolution 853 (1993), Resolution 874 (1993), Resolution 884 (1993) and the UN General Assembly’s Resolution A/RES/62/243 (2008), which serve as basic principles for the conflict resolution, condemn the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and reaffirm support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders.
In addition, in its four resolutions the UN Security Council confirmed that Nagorno-Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan and called for respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and its borders, also stating that it is inadmissible to use force to acquire territories.
This means that holding of the so-called "constitutional referendum" is an open disregard of Armenia and the Armenian-created puppet regime for international norms and regulations and it can become a dangerous precedent in other similar situations, if the international community does not strongly and unequivocally protest against this farce.
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Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency's Russian News Service