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Tense debates on Nagorno Karabakh take place in University of Michigan, USA

31 January 2009 09:45 (UTC +04:00)

Russian Armenian expert Antranik Migranyan said Russia had no intentions, at first, to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. â€œThe Mikhail Saakashviliâ€™s keen messages followed by the August events forced Russia to take radical measuresâ€. He said the US administration also contributed to the developments. Migranyan said the US foreign policy over the past 15 years, military operations in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq shook the international law system and consequently Russia didnâ€™t consider the use of arms as a fault.
Touching upon the Kosovoâ€™s independence, Migranyan said it was not real that the Western diplomats have not seen Kosovo as a precedent for other conflicts.
â€œIf you compare the Kosovo conflict with the relations between Tbilisi and Sukhumi, Tbilisi and Tskhinvali, Baku and Stepanakert (Khankendi), you can not find a differenceâ€, said Migranyan.

The expert said the borders were delimited artificially in the period of USSR and were contradictory to the will of peoples and therefore Nagorno Karabakh had a right of self-determination.

Elin Suleymanov, Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles said Migranyanâ€™s opinion was mistaken. â€œKosovo is not a precedent for the conflicts in our region, particularly for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. First, the decision on the Kosovoâ€™s future was made by the West on the one hand, but USA, Russia and some of the European leading countries have no decisive votes in the Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Second, in the Kosovo conflict, neighboring Albania did not occupy Kosovo and Albanian current political leaders are not natives of Kosovo. However Armenia was involved in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in all forms and the international community recognizes Armenia as a part of the conflict.

Third, Kosovo was ruled by the international organizations for a long time after the NATO operations in the region and it gave legitimacy to Kosovo.

Fourth, war crimes against the local residents in Kosovo were committed by Belgrade, but in Nagorno Karabakh the war crimes were committed by neighboring Armenia. For example, Armenians committed crime against humanity in Khojaliâ€.

Elin Suleymanov said it was not correct to base on the former Soviet law about self-determination right giving to the regions, because Nagorno Karabakh and other separatist regimes didnâ€™t address the relevant organizations to give them independence according to that law.

The Consul General said Azerbaijani people wished to live in peace with Armenians and Azerbaijanâ€™s Armenian citizens could also use the economic opportunities of the country, but absolute criterion for this is the solution to the conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.