Interview with Neil MacFarlane, head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University.
Q: What is you your common impression from the speech of Armenian president at Chatham house?
A: I was surprised at the tone of the speech. But I don’t think it changes much. Leaders on both sides have frequently engaged in the discourse of confrontation before.
Q: The documents of all international organization including 4 resolutions of UN Security Council as well as resolution adopted by Council of Europe and cetera recognize Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. How would you comment on Sargsyan’s attempts to justify military occupation a part of Azerbaijan during 188-1994 years by referring to international law?
A: I do not believe that the position he takes can be justified in international law.
Q: President Aliyev says that if the negotiations with Armenia fail Azerbaijan has a right to liberate its occupied territories in a frame of Azerbaijani borders recognized by UN in 1991 (including Karabakh). Is there any contradiction of law?
A: The UN charter does not prohibit the use of force by a government within iits domestic jurisdiction. Although the Minsk process and the UN Security Council engagement have internationalised the conflict to a degree, to my mind it would be difficult to make a legal argument that Karabakh was not part of Azerbaijani territorial jurisdiction. Obviously, if Azerbaijan chose to use force (and I hope it does not), it would be subject to the laws of war and to international humanitarian law, which are frequently deemed to apply to civil conflicts as well as international ones.
Q: Russia is strategic military partner of Armenia, and besides there are facts about participations of Russian soldiers in Karabakh war on Armenian side (for instance in massacre of Azeri population in Khojaly in 1992). Anyway there is an opinion in Baku that the keys of Karabakh problem lie in Moscow. What do you think about Russian’s influence on Karabakh settlement?
A: I think that the Russian Federation is currently playing a fairly constructive role in the effort to resolve this conflict. The persistence of the conflict is an obstacle to Russia’s pursuit of other interests in the region and with Turkey. However, I am not sure that Russian pressure could produce a compromise on either the Armenian or the Azerbaijani side.
Q: Azerbaijan proposes a highest possible level of autonomy for those, who live in Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenians as well as Azerbaijanis, who are refugees now). But Armenia demands independence for Karabakh. Do you expect that international community will recognize independence of Karabakh if Armenia will do it itself and thus a continuation of practice demonstrated recently in Kosovo, Sought Ossetia and Abkhazia?
A: No. South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been recognised by Russia, Nicaragua, and Nauru. That is not the “international community”. The Kosovo case is not obviously comparable to that in Karabakh. To my mind, there is little reason to expect that major countries would recognise Karabakh.
However, there is one necessary qualification. if it became clear (as it did in Kosovo) that the Armenian population in Karabakh was at risk of massive displacement or killing, then that might justify an exception to the general rule of territorial integrity on the basis of the notion of “remedial secession”.
Neil MacFarlane is head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University, Associate Fellow at Chatham House (London).
News.Az
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
