Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the Karabakh conflict should be solved based on the international law. Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity” should be restored, Aliyev told journalists after his meeting with President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus.

He is echoed by Novruz Mammadov, the head of the international relations department at the Azerbaijani President’s Administration, who stated that “Azerbaijan is well aware of the principle of territorial integrity.”

According to him, the territorial integrity envisages “Nagorno Karabakh’s autonomy as part of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.”

However, Baku misunderstands or to be more precise misinterprets the international law. It must have forgotten that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan announced itself as a legal successor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, but not of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

Specifically, Article 2 of the Constitutional Act of the Republic of Azerbaijan on independent statehood of the Republic of Azerbaijan reads: “The Republic of Azerbaijan is a legal successor of the Azerbaijan Republic dating back to the period of May 28,1918–April 28, 1920.”

Nagorno Karabakh, with 94% of Armenian population, by the decision of the Caucasus Bureau was included in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in a capacity of autonomy in 1921.

The historical reality indicates that Karabakh is not anyhow related to Azerbaijan, while the international law is completely observed and rehabilitated here and now.