Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Svante E. Cornell: The situation in Nagorno Karabakh is in many ways mirror image of the Kosovo situation, strongly weakening the case for independence made by the separatists â€“ EXCLUSIVE

27 July 2010 09:02 (UTC +04:00)

â€œThere may not be anything illegal in terms of international law in a declaration of independence; that would violate the law of the mother country, in this case Serbia. But that a declaration of independence is not illegal does not mean that it is recognized by the rest of the worldâ€, Mr. Cornell told APAâ€™s Washington DC correspondent.
He mentioned that, judging these issues, one has to take a number of things into account. But in case of Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation is much different:

â€œOne is the extent of human rights violations and the changes in population structure. In the case of Kosovo, there was ethnic cleansing committed against Kosovars by Serbia, which is what triggered a multilateral international intervention under NATOâ€™s umbrella. Thus, international intervention restored the demographic status before the war. In the cases of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation is much different. â€¦There was massive ethnic cleansing committed by the separatist side, especially in the cases of Karabakh in 1992-93 and Abkhazia in 1993, as well as in South Ossetia in 2008. Thus, these are in many ways mirror images of the Kosovo situation, strongly weakening the case for independence made by the separatists. It is a long-standing principle of international law that it is unacceptable to first alter the demographic situation and then make political declarations of independenceâ€.