Karabakh precedent for small sovereign states
Long before Kosovo was on the international agenda, it was mountainous Karabakh that challenged Stalin's legacy and offered a constitutional, juridical and legal reversal of that legacy through a referendum, member of Armenian delegation to PACE, Heritage party leader Raffi K. Hovannisian said in his address to PACE spring session.
"It was the first step in the decolonisation of the Soviet Union and it is in this forum that one day an Azerbaijani colleague will stand up and say that responsibility is collective. When we talk about refugees and internally displaced persons and about territorial and security issues and suffering, the issues belong to all of us and not to any of us separately. Maybe they will say that we, too, erred in launching a war of aggression against Karabakh's liberty instead of talking to its leaders and its people. Maybe that day will come to pass, beginning here, in this Chamber," he said.
"Despite the war of aggression unleashed upon mountainous Karabakh by Azerbaijan - a conflict that has cast untold loss, suffering and destinies of displacement upon hundreds of thousands of human beings on both sides - neither Karabakh nor any Armenian delegates have ever abused that pain for the repeated assertion of polemical and devious arguments relating to refugees, internally displaced persons, "occupied" territories and a variety of other familiar talking points. Its manifest, therefore, that the true precedent for small contemporary sovereignties is indeed mountainous Karabakh."
"The case in point is mountainous Karabakh or Artsakh which, on the eve of the Berlin Wall's fall into history and long before Kosovo became current, heralded a new era of liberty, legality and democracy for the republics and other administrative entities of the Soviet Union. The citizens of Karabakh spearheaded the decolonisation of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics by declaring their independence in a referendum held in strict compliance with international and controlling Soviet laws. In determining to master their future they triggered the long-overdue process of democratic correction of Stalin's legacy, which continues to haunt many freedom-loving people to this day," he said, PACE communication unit reported.
According to Heritage party's press office, Mr Hovannisian will leave Strasbourg for Serbia and Kosovo to participate in the NATO PA regional mission.
"It was the first step in the decolonisation of the Soviet Union and it is in this forum that one day an Azerbaijani colleague will stand up and say that responsibility is collective. When we talk about refugees and internally displaced persons and about territorial and security issues and suffering, the issues belong to all of us and not to any of us separately. Maybe they will say that we, too, erred in launching a war of aggression against Karabakh's liberty instead of talking to its leaders and its people. Maybe that day will come to pass, beginning here, in this Chamber," he said.
"Despite the war of aggression unleashed upon mountainous Karabakh by Azerbaijan - a conflict that has cast untold loss, suffering and destinies of displacement upon hundreds of thousands of human beings on both sides - neither Karabakh nor any Armenian delegates have ever abused that pain for the repeated assertion of polemical and devious arguments relating to refugees, internally displaced persons, "occupied" territories and a variety of other familiar talking points. Its manifest, therefore, that the true precedent for small contemporary sovereignties is indeed mountainous Karabakh."
"The case in point is mountainous Karabakh or Artsakh which, on the eve of the Berlin Wall's fall into history and long before Kosovo became current, heralded a new era of liberty, legality and democracy for the republics and other administrative entities of the Soviet Union. The citizens of Karabakh spearheaded the decolonisation of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics by declaring their independence in a referendum held in strict compliance with international and controlling Soviet laws. In determining to master their future they triggered the long-overdue process of democratic correction of Stalin's legacy, which continues to haunt many freedom-loving people to this day," he said, PACE communication unit reported.
According to Heritage party's press office, Mr Hovannisian will leave Strasbourg for Serbia and Kosovo to participate in the NATO PA regional mission.
