Pashinyan is mistaken about independence of Armenian-populated part of Karabakh

Baku/13.04.23/Turan: On April 12, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan justified his country's unwillingness to fight for Karabakh by the fact that before his coming to power, Armenia recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan through adopting the Madrid principles as the basis for negotiations.

However, he went on to repeat an idea frequently voiced by all Armenian politicians that Nagorno-Karabakh, during the collapse of the USSR, had realized the right to self-determination. 

In fact, Pashinyan repeated the statement frequently expressed by Armenian politicians that Nagorno-Karabakh realized the right to self-determination during the collapse of the USSR and gained independence, like other subjects of the Soviet Union, co-author of the constitutional act of independence of Azerbaijan from 1991 Fuad Agayev told Turan.

"Amateurs from politics and law who refer to this, to put it mildly, dubious judgment, while referring to the Law of the USSR "On the Procedure for Resolving Issues Arising from the Withdrawal of the Union Republic from the USSR." In so doing, the Armenian side refers to the above-cited Law," Agayev noted.

It is worth reminding that the said law was adopted on April 3, 1990. Article 3 reads as follows:

"Article 3.  In the Union Republic, which includes autonomous republics, autonomous regions and autonomous regions, a referendum is held separately for each autonomy. The peoples of the autonomous republics and autonomous formations retain the right to independently decide on the issue of staying in the USSR or in the outgoing Union Republic, as well as to raise the question of their state-legal status."

This article and the related provisions of the Law were supported by such heralds of the "Armenian world" as the notorious Galina Starovoitova, Igityan, Migranyan and others, Agayev recalled.

Over the past 32 years, they and many other Armenians continue to demonstrate their blatant incompetence.

What is this incompetence expressed in?, asks Agayev:

Firstly, on September 23, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR adopted the Constitutional Law "On the Sovereignty of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic". Note that the Party of People's Front of Azerbaijan (PPFA) played a decisive role in the adoption of this law, and the late Tofiq Gasymov and I were a part of the working group on its development. What was said in this law?

According to Article 5, the sovereignty of the Azerbaijan SSR extended to the entire territory of the Republic, including the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region as an integral part of Azerbaijan.

The territory of the Azerbaijan SSR is inalienable and cannot be changed without its consent expressed by a popular vote (referendum) held by the decision of the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR among the entire population of the Republic.

Article 6 of the Constitutional Law said: "The laws of the Azerbaijan SSR are valid throughout the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR. The laws of the USSR do not violate the sovereign rights of the Azerbaijan SSR on the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR."

Agayev notes that in 1989, many Union republics within the USSR adopted declarations of sovereignty. The fundamental difference in Azerbaijan's approach was due to the fact that only we adopted a law, the Constitutional Law, the norms of which were mandatory, not declarative, and had priority over all other norms, even the norms of the laws of the USSR. The latter could be applied in Azerbaijan only when they did not violate sovereignty.

Consequently, the USSR Law "On the Procedure for Resolving Issues Arising from the Withdrawal of the Union Republic from the USSR", adopted six months later, clearly violating the sovereign rights of Azerbaijan, could not be applied and was not applied to Azerbaijan, including its integral part – at that time the former NKAR, despite all the efforts of the Armenians.

Moreover, on October 18, 1991, the Constitutional Act "On the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan" was adopted, according to Article 3 of which the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR was declared invalid in respect of Azerbaijan from the date of its signing. This act was put to a popular vote (referendum) held among the entire population of Azerbaijan on December 29 of the same year and approved by an overwhelming majority of votes, Fuad Agayev noted. –0—