Group of social and political figures spoke about distortions of  Alma-Ata Declaration and consequences of legal arbitrariness

ArmInfo.A group of social and political figures issued a statement in which they spoke about  the distortions of the Alma-Ata Declaration and the consequences of legal arbitrariness.

The statement received by ArmInfo  reads:

"On September 19, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched a massive  shelling of Stepanakert and other cities of Nagorno-Karabakh using  artillery and UAVs during a large-scale aggression. In order to  prevent further escalation of hostilities and save the lives of  civilians, the President of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh  Republic (NKR) was forced to fulfill the ultimatum demand of  Azerbaijan and sign an illegal decree on the termination of its  existence from January 1, 2024. 

This was one of the main results of the three-year processes for the  implementation of the truce conditions contained in the trilateral  Statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia (dated  09.11.2020) concluded after the aggression of Azerbaijan against the  NKR and the Republic of Armenia (RA) in 2020.

The actions of Azerbaijan preceding this decree - the 44-day war in  2020, the 280-day blockade of all transport communications connecting  the NKR with the outside world, the large-scale military aggression  on September 19, 2023, accompanied by violence, killings of  civilians, including children and the elderly, and other acts of  vandalism - indicate deliberate acts aimed at genocide by expelling  Armenians who have been living in their native land for thousands of  years. Today, almost all the surviving population has left the NKR.

What happened also characterizes the results of the negotiation  processes that took place between the parties to the conflict on the  Russian, American and Brussels platforms, and were accompanied by  optimistic statements and calls for the protection of the rights and  safety of the Karabakh Armenians. The measures stipulated by the  international obligations of the UN member states to prevent the  Armenian Genocide of Karabakh were not applied against the criminal  acts of Azerbaijan. The UN Security Council, having considered at an  emergency meeting the issue of the humanitarian catastrophe in  Nagorno-Karabakh, limited itself to calls for restraint and respect  for human rights addressed to the aggressor and his victim. 

In order to "justify" such inaction, the texts and meaning of key  concepts contained in international documents referred to by the  leaders of states and the heads of their foreign policy departments  pursuing their geopolitical goals were distorted. As a legal  "justification", they turn to the Alma-Ata Declaration (21.12.1991)  of the newly independent states formed as a result of the liquidation  of the USSR. It is claimed, as Armenian Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan recently stated in the European Parliament, that the  republics that allegedly signed this declaration "recognize the  territorial integrity, sovereignty of each other, the inviolability  of existing, i.e. administrative borders, and, consequently, the  existing administrative borders between the republics of the Soviet  Union become state borders." Similar references to the Alma-Ata  Declaration were once made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,  Head of the European Council Sh. Michel and others.  Meanwhile,  recognition and respect for the territorial integrity of the States  that signed the Alma-Ata Declaration is associated in it with the  inviolability of the borders existing precisely at the time of  signing the document, and not the administrative borders of the  former Soviet Union republics, which are not mentioned at all in the  declaration.  It is important to note that the absence of mention of  the administrative borders of the former Soviet republics is due to  the fact that by the time this declaration was signed, the borders of  some states that became independent as a result of the collapse of  the USSR no longer, de facto or de jure, coincided with the  administrative borders of the Union republics. There are no figures  in the text of the declaration defining the territory of the  signatory States.  There is not a single line in the text of the  declaration that the existing administrative boundaries between the  republics of the Soviet Union become state borders. 

Azerbaijan seceded from the USSR with gross violations of the current  legislation, rejecting the succession of the Azerbaijani SSR, de  facto and de jure without the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region  (NKAO). This gave the NKAO the right, in accordance with the laws of  the USSR and the provisions of international law, to independently  dispose of its future fate by creating an independent state entity.   When referring to the Alma-Ata Declaration, its provisions on the  right of peoples to self-determination, renunciation of the use of  force and the threat of force, economic and any other methods of  pressure, peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for human rights  and freedoms, including the rights of national minorities,  conscientious implementation of obligations and other generally  recognized principles and norms of international law, which  Azerbaijan has flagrantly violated.  Distortions and arbitrary  interpretation of the key concepts of the declaration and statements  based on them by the leaders of Armenia, the European Union and some  countries, international organizations involved in the conflict  management process are taking place against the background of the  deaths of thousands of civilians.  Hundreds of innocent people are  missing, and an unknown number of people are being tortured and  ill-treated in the dungeons of hydrocarbon-rich Azerbaijan. 

Representatives of the military-political leadership of the  Nagorno-Karabakh Republic have been abducted and arrested for the  purpose of conducting illegal trials in the future. A threatening  precedent is being created for equating peoples fighting for  self-determination, participating in national liberation movements  with terrorist entities, and on the other hand for encouraging  criminal acts (genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity) under  the false cover of territorial integrity.

Another consequence of such distortions was a direct threat to the  territorial integrity of Armenia. Modern Azerbaijan makes claims that  have no legal basis to the territories of the Republic of Armenia,  calling them "enclaves". If we adhere to the Alma-Ata Declaration,  neither the so-called "enclaves" nor the territory of the NKR,  according to the declaration, were located within the "existing  borders" of the Republic of Azerbaijan which signed this document.  Aliev threatens to open the extraterritorial "Zangezur Corridor"  through the southern Syunik Armenian region by force, calling it  "Western Azerbaijan". All these illegal demands are accompanied by  the direct use of force, the occupation of the sovereign territory of  Armenia in 2021 and 2022, periodic shelling of border posts and  villages, which resulted in the death of hundreds of people.  Azerbaijan's criminal actions pose a real threat to the security not  only of the South Caucasus, but also of the explosive Middle East  region.

We appeal to the leaders of the countries, the leaders of the  European Union, their respective structures, and parliamentarians to  give an adequate assessment of the legal grounds for the  self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in their  native land, condemn the criminal acts of Azerbaijan. It is necessary  to take decisive measures in support of the NKR Armenians, apply  sanctions to the state that subjected the people to aggression and  genocide.  We call on international organizations, political and  legal institutions and organizations dealing with the protection of  human rights, political and public figures, and the expert community  to raise their voice against political manipulation, which must be  immediately identified at all levels and suppressed in order to  prevent legal arbitrariness and its disastrous consequences." Larisa  Alaverdyan, The first Human Rights Defender of the Republic of  Armenia, "Foundation Against the Violation of Law" NGO, Executive  Director Mihran Shahzadeyan, Ph. D, Chairman of the Board of the  Armenian Association of Political Scientists Aram Sargsyan,  Coordinator of the "MIASIN" (Together) movement, Chairman of the   Democratic Party of Armenia Alexander Manasyan, Doctor of  Philosophies Sciences, Corresponding Member of the National Academy  of Sciences of Armenia, Co-chairman of the Armenian Association of  Political Scientists.  Gevorg Danielyan, Doctor of Law, former  Minister of Justice of Armenia Atom Mkhitaryan, Dean of the   International Scientific and Educational Center of the National   Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Co-chairman of the Armenian  Association of Political Scientists.  Harut Sassounian, Master's in  International Affairs, Publisher, The California Courier -- USA  Winfried Dallmann, Dr. scient., associate professor, Tromso, Norway  Tessa Hofmann, PhD, German scholar of Armenian and Genocide studies,  research scholar at the Free University of Berlin, Vahan Babakhanyan  Chairman of the ''Public organization of sociological and political  science initiatives "Crossroad", Saint Petersburg .  Mikhail  Vladimirovich Alexandrov, Doctor of Political Sciences, Moscow Sven  Erik Rise, Masters` Degree, Norway Sarkis Mesrobian, Doctor of  Sciences, Chairman of the Pan Armenian Nation Emergency      Committee, USA Dr. rer. nat. Gerayer Koutcharian, human rights  activist, Berlin