Nobody expected that Pashinyan would dare to make such a statement

Baku/24.11.21/Turan: At an online press conference on November 23, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that in 1991 Armenia and Azerbaijan in the process of creating the CIS, having signed a declaration and an interstate agreement, "mutually recognized territorial integrity."

“Then the problem of Karabakh also existed. The question is: is the Karabakh problem a territory problem? In our understanding, this is a matter of law,” Pashinyan explained.

Further, Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of trying to disrupt negotiations on unblocking communications, putting forward the theme of the "Zangezur Corridor". “Yerevan will do everything to prevent Baku from doing it,” he said.

Referring to the upcoming meeting in Brussels on December 15, he noted that "humanitarian issues, including prisoners" will be discussed.

As for the meeting on November 26 in Sochi, preparations for it have been going on for a long time, Pashinyan said. Contacts between representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan should be more frequent so that crises can be avoided.

Has Armenia really recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan? Is Karabakh a legal issue?

Farhad Mehdiyev, an expert on international law, answered these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to him, he did not expect that Pashinyan would dare to make such a bold statement. “What he said is “Uti possidetis (lat. The original full wording: “uti possidetis, ita possideatis”  (is a principle in international law that territory and other property remains with its possessor at the end of a conflict, unless provided for by treaty - Ed.) A principle that has developed in international practice, which means that the new states that have gained independence have the same territory and with the same borders that they had before, being colonies or dependent territories, including administrative units as part of other states. According to the rule, the old administrative border, which previously existed within the territory of the newly formed independent state, becomes an international border,” the expert explained.

Mehdiyev recalled that the Armenian Republic in its Constitution of Armenia "legalized" claims to Azerbaijani Karabakh. (The cornerstone of the Armenian constitutional legislation is the resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR and the National Council of the NKAO dated December 1, 1989 "On the reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh" - Ed.). At the same time, he noted, when joining the CIS, UN, PACE, Armenia did not come up with territorial claims to Azerbaijan.

“Thus, it turns out that Armenia has already recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. It is clear that this is a political move on the part of Pashinyan. Thus, in fact, he acted as the first Armenian leader who recognized the belonging of Karabakh to Azerbaijan,” the political scientist said.

Mehdiyev did not rule out that at the Sochi summit, Pashinyan could make a corresponding statement. — 0—