With the quadrilateral declaration of Prague (October 6), Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and 1991 to the Alma-Ata Declaration, they recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Briefly: what are these documents and who needed to cite them?
UN Charter
The UN Charter was signed in 1945 in San Francisco (USA) and then ratified by the founding members of the UN. Later, the states that applied for membership to the United Nations became members of this organization under the condition of ratification of the charter.
The Charter establishes the main principles of international relations (stated in point 7), including resolving international disputes by peaceful means so that there is no threat to international peace, security, justice (point 3), refraining from the threat of force or its use against any state. territorial integrity or political independence (paragraph 4).
Point 2 of the article related to the goals of the United Nations is important from the point of view of the implementation of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh: to develop friendly relations between nations on the basis of respect for the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples.
It seemed that the mention of the UN Charter is completely sufficient to start the process aimed at the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However…
Declaration of Alma-Ata
1991 on December 8, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed an agreement on the establishment of the CIS, which recorded the cessation of the existence of the USSR as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, and the establishment of the CIS was announced. In the days following this event, the parliaments of the mentioned states ratified the agreement. On December 21 of the same year in Alma-Ata, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Belarus, Russia and Ukraine signed 2 documents: the declaration on the goals and principles of the CIS and the protocol attached to the agreement on the creation of the CIS.
The protocol attached to the agreement on the establishment of the CIS was, in fact, a repetition or reaffirmation of the main provisions of the agreement itself. The protocol was subject to ratification, the declaration was not. Ratification again took place according to the spirit of the time, quickly and unconditionally (5 states of Central Asia proposed to call the CIS the Eurasian CIS, it was rejected).
However, the rapid and unconditional process of the protocol was broken in Armenia. 1992 in the middle of January, the opposition represented in the RA State Council put into circulation a proposal of reservations consisting of several points. In 1992, after discussion in the Committees on Foreign Relations and Artsakh Affairs. on February 18, the RA Supreme Council ratified the protocol attached to the agreement on the creation of the CIS, in which the principle of recognition and respect of each other’s territorial integrity and existing borders was declared within the framework of cooperation. This provision could be related to the current process of regulating Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, if there was not one “but”… The highest body of the RA government, the Supreme Council, accepted with broad consensus a fundamental reservation regarding the implementation of Artsakh’s right to self-determination.
It should be noted that in addition to the record of the supremacy of the principle of free self-determination of nations, the other reservations referred to the right of the newly independent states to receive a share of the armed forces and property of the former Union, to the spheres of equal cooperation of the CIS member states, in 1988. joint elimination of the consequences of the earthquake, taking action against the states violating the agreement (after Armenia, Moldova also ratified the protocol with a reservation, emphasizing that the goal of the CIS is only economic cooperation.)
Let’s summarize. The mention of the protocol in the Prague statement was apparently unacceptable to Aliyev because Armenia’s objections would have been brought to the fore. However, Pashinyan desperately needed a reference that would point the arrow of responsibility 30 years away, in order to play another ridiculous piece of Marleson’s ballet called “the former gave Karabakh to Azerbaijan”. Therefore, Aliyev met him and agreed to mention the declaration not ratified by the parliaments, to which from a strict legal point of view the reservations of the RA SC do not apply.
Ara Sahakyan