Nagorno Garabagh

Home page

Nagorno Garabagh

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry comments on issue of peoplesâ€™ right to self-determination

03 November 2014 16:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. "The right of peoples to self-determination is one of the core principles of the international law. Politicizing the international law, particularly the principle of self-determination of peoples, and using them for political speculation are unacceptable. Unfortunately, that's what we're seeing in Armenia's experience", said Hikmet Hajiyev, acting spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, as he commented on Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s statements about the principle of peoples' self-determination.

Hajiyev said that in the UN Charter, the right to self-determination is defined as fight against colonialism and in terms of occupied territories.

"According to the Helsinki Final Act (August 1, 1975), the participating states will respect the equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination, acting at all times in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant norms of the international law, including those relating to territorial integrity and states. The right of self-determination shouldn’t run contrary to the right to territorial integrity and the UN Charter. According to the Helsinki Final Act, the participating states will likewise refrain from making each other's territory the object of military occupation or other direct or indirect measures of force in contravention of international law, or the object of acquisition by means of such measures or the threat of them. No such occupation or acquisition will be recognized as legal. In general, it is improper to talk about the right of peoples to self-determination in the background of the acts of occupation, aggression and bloody ethnic cleansing committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia’s actions contravene the fundamental principles, essence and philosophy of the right of peoples to self-determination. With its actions, Armenia contradicts the fundamental principles, essence, and philosophy of the right of peoples to self-determination. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan is either ignorant of these or intentionally turns the international law and the principle of peoples’ self-determination into his own tool for political speculation. That’s very sad,” he said.