International principles are equally viable

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Nagorno Karabagh peace process, which is mediated by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, is moving forward, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in his address to the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.



"The Presidents and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet regularly to discuss the principles of a comprehensive resolution of the conflict. Armenia is convinced that in order to create an opportunity for progress in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict, the parties should commit to refrain from steps that could hamper dialogue and the peace process.



On the international arena, Azerbaijan consistently misrepresents the essence of the Nagorno Karabagh problem, like two days ago in this forum, trying to smother ethnic cleansings and its policy of violence against the people of Nagorno Karabagh. The international community recalls the Azerbaijani open aggression, large-scale hostilities and war against Nagorno Karabagh, also with the help of mercenaries, closely linked to terrorist organizations. These ultimately claimed lives of tens of thousand of civilians.



We believe that there is a serious basis for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh problem, if the provisions contained in the Declaration signed by the Presidents of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation on 2 November 2008, in Moscow, and also in the Declaration of the Foreign Ministers of the Co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group issued in Helsinki on 4 December 2008, and in the Declaration adopted by the Foreign Ministers of all 56 OSCE member states on 5 December 2008, are implemented. According to these documents, the parties must commit themselves to the peaceful settlement of the problem through negotiations, based on "Madrid Principles" of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.



The Basic Principles, around which negotiations are held currently, are anchored on the benchmark codes of the international law as incorporated in the Charter of this Organization, the Helsinki Final Act and other relevant international documents. The international principles of Non-Use or Threat of Use of Force, the Self-Determination of Peoples and Territorial Integrity are equally viable. Some have long attempted to downplay the importance of the notion of self-determination of peoples as a second-rate principle in the system of international law, and inferior to that of "territorial integrity". I have to disappoint the advocates of double standards: self-determination is an unconditional clause of the international law; it is about liberty, freedom of any people to choose its future and fate, and to defend its collective rights whenever those rights and that future are jeopardized. If self-determination was inferior to territorial integrity there would have been only 52 member states in the UN, instead of 192 present," Minister Nalbandian said.