make preferableТhe statement made at the 17th conference of the OSCE Foreign Ministers’ Council in Athens is beneficial due to the fact that it urges the sides to maintain positive dynamics in the negotiations, the analyst Tigran Mkrtchyan told NEWS.am, commenting on a joint statement by the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The expert also pointed out that both the Armenian side and the international community consider the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and Armenian-Turkish reconciliation independent processes. The Turkish side is involved in the Armenian-Turkish negotiations on this basis. However, if any positive developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process are considered essential for the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols, the statement ensures the expected progress. In any case, irrespective of the Armenian side’s will, the Turkish Parliament will take the document into account in ratifying the protocols, Mkrtchyan said.
Of interest is also the fact that the statement confirms a number of principles – non-use of force, no menace of force, territorial integrity and nations’ rights to self-determination – as fundamental principles of settling conflicts under international law. “No doubt, the confirmed right to self-determination is of paramount importance. Of course, Azerbaijan interprets the principle ‘selectively’ – self-determination in the context of territorial integrity. However, any person knowing about the right to self-determination is well aware that the principle is widely applied, and the application of the panhuman standard may have any outcome,” Mkrtchyan said.
No wonder, then, that the statement accentuates the territorial integrity principle. “It would be surprising it the principle was not mentioned at all. Of greater interest will be Azerbaijan’s violation of the principle of no menace of force and the signatories’ reaction to it,” Mkrtchyan said.
