The Karabakh conflict can be resolved only within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. After the liberation of occupied territories, the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be developed and the European experience can be used to solve the problem. The head of the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) Farhad Mammadov, under the President of Azerbaijan stated this, at the conference,"National Minorities in Europe: a model of South Tyrol and its relevance to the Caucasus."
Mamedov said that the issue of making the legal status of the region is a lengthy process requiring the development of mechanisms for peaceful co-existence of Azeri and Armenian communities and economic, social and cultural development of the region. Azerbaijan can create an environment in which the Armenians would give up the idea of independence, and serious financial income of the country would provide additional opportunities, he said.
The Deputy Head of CSS, Gulshan Pashayeva, reminded that in the South Tyrol region of Italy there is a German-speaking majority of the population.
Professor of Social Sciences from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, Mitya Zagar, noted that the protection of national minorities is an essential element of democracy. In modern international law there is no universal concept of national minorities, but the prevailing European standards require the protection of educational, cultural and linguistic rights of minorities, and their representation in government and administration. Thus, in addition to equal rights inherent to all, additional protections for minority rights have to be provided.
Professor of the Italian University of Trento, Roberto Toniatti, described the experience of South Tyrol as a “success story”. Though the territory was disputed between Italy and Austria in the decades after World War II, the parties were committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict. True, there were some outbursts of violence and terrorist attacks in the region. However, only 16 people were the victims of the conflict.
In 1969 the Italian government offered a package of 139 measures that guaranteed the rights of communities in health care, access to social safeguards and financial resources, proportional representation in government structures and on high positions through rotation.
90% of the taxes collected in the region remain there, and only 10% of the funds go to the center. In 1972 it was announced as an autonomous region of Italy and in 1992 Austria officially announced the absence of any claim in connection with South Tyrol.
Member of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, the chief executive of Khojavend Eyvaz Huseynov noted that the Karabakh conflict is very different from South Tyrol. Thus, the Armenians had even more right during the period of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region. They held key positions at the regional and district levels, had their own university, TV, radio, etc.
“At the root of the conflict are the territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan. Austria, unlike Armenia, did not occupy the territory of a neighboring country. So, first of all the Azerbaijani territories must be released,” Huseynov said.
The Azerbaijani community is ready to coexist peacefully with the Armenians within any model providing for the preservation of NK within Azerbaijan, he said.
The German-speaking autonomous province of South Tyrol, together with the other autonomous province, the Italian-speaking Trento, forms a single autonomous region of Trentino, South Tyrol.
The region has its own parliament, which is proportional to the Germans (70%), Italians (25%) and Ladino (5% - people speaking a version of the Romanic language).
The President of the region is elected by rotation every 2.5 years by the Italian-speaking and German-speaking communities. -06C-
Politics
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The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has expressed condolences to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following the tragic incident in the city of Magdeburg. "We are deeply shocked by the news of the deaths and injuries resulting from the tragic incident that took place at the Christmas market in Magdeburg," the message reads.
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