Ruben Zargaryan: South Sudan for NKR’s independence

PanARMENIAN.Net - On January 9-15, 2011, an independence referendum was held in South Sudan. Some 99% of South Sudanese voted to secede from the north, according to the first complete results of the region's independence referendum.

Actually, the referendum in South Sudan has once again reiterated and confirmed the irreversibility and legitimacy of Nagorno Karabakh’s (Republic of Artsakh) independence.

Both the people of Nagorno Karabakh and people of South Sudan had been subjected to systematic and lasting genocide by Azerbaijan and Sudan and they defeated the Azerbaijani and Sudanese aggressors, held independence referendums as a natural result of the struggle for the right to life and decent development.

Advisor to the NKR Foreign Minister Ruben Zargaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that NKR and South Sudan are united by the fact that the status of autonomy previously imposed on them had not solved the problem of these people’s survival.

“However, there is also a difference – Nagorno Karabakh has never made a part of Azerbaijan. The Sudanese government agreed to sign a peace deal, which fixed the plan for holding an independence referendum, with South Sudan after a major defeat of the governmental troops in 1997. It is noteworthy that the international community had exerted pressure on the central government in Khartoum and demanded observance of the nation’s right to self-determination through a referendum. All this attaches dynamism to the international law, which imperatively dictates the necessity of final recognition of the long-ago established Nagorno Karabakh Republic, which held a similar referendum in 1991. The main difference between NKR and South Sudan is in the fact that NKR is a long-ago established and successful state, while South Sudan still needs to build a state. The final recognition of NKR by the world community is a historical opportunity to close the tragic chapter of the world history, just like in case with South Sudan. It would be wrong not to use this opportunity,” said Zargaryan.