Nagorno-Karabakh has good chances to achieve international recognition – Armenian orientalist

June 12, 2017 By administrator

The current state of world affairs increases the chances of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to achieve an international recognition, according to Ruben Safrastyan, the director of the National Academy’s Institute of Oriental Studies.
At a news conference on Monday, the expert cited the upcoming independence referendums in Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan (slated for October 1 and September 25, respectively) as possible good precedents paving way for such a scenario.

Meantime he admitted that the US, China and Russia remain the main vectors in global politics.

“Unlike the ‘cold war’ period which saw two power centers totally dominate the world, that [scenario] isn’t possible now, with small and medium states gaining looser chances to act,” he said.

Asked to comment on possible impacts on Armenia’s national security (against the backdrop of the changes in the Middle East), the analyst noted the states in the region gain both hazards and advantages.

Safrastyan highlighted particularly an intensifying confrontation between Turkey and Iran which he said seek for a dominant role in the region. “Both countries have high ambitions as it is. Hence the edges of cooperation – if any at all – are tactical in essence,” he said.

As for the opportunities for Armenia, Safrastyan said he pins hope on the re-arrangements expected in the near future. “The creation of a Kurdish state implies changing borders, so this state of affairs should regionally rely upon the Treaty of Sevres, the only international document adopted in the early 20th century to lay the foundations for new re-arrangements. They should, willy-nilly, return to that agreement, so we have to be prepared for that,” he added.

Scotland’s Sturgeon to seek second independence referendum

October 13, 2016 By administrator

independance First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence, saying Scotland should be able to make this choice “before the UK leaves the EU.” Scots had voted to stay.

Opening the Scottish National Party conference in Glasgow, Nicola Sturgeon said she would take the first step towards a second independence referendum for Scotland next week.

“I can confirm that the Independence Referendum Bill will be published for consultation next week,” Sturgeon told delegates. She argued that in the event of a “hard Brexit” – particularly the UK leaving the EU without retaining access to the single market – then Scotland “will have the right to decide, afresh, if it wants to take a different path.”

Sturgeon even quoted the British Conservative Party’s election manifesto for 2015, which had stated: “We say yes to the single market.”

Despite being careful not to set a desired date for the vote, at one point saying “whenever that might be,” Sturgeon did say the decision should fall prior to the UK leaving the EU. That timeline remains very muddy, but as it stands, British Prime Minister Theresa May intends to trigger an exit process – slated to last two years – early in 2017.

‘A case we will win’

In 2014, 55 percent of Scottish residents voted to stay a part of the United Kingdom; back then, independence supporters were warned that leaving London would mean an EU exit.

Sturgeon said that she believed the UK’s even narrower 52 percent vote to leave the EU – when more than 60 percent of Scots voted to stay – had changed the landscape.

In the event of a hard Brexit, Sturgeon said that the choice at a second independence referendum would pit “an inward-looking, insular, Brexit Britain, governed by a right-wing Tory party obsessed with borders and blue passports at the expense of economic strength and stability” against “a progressive, outward-looking, internationalist Scotland, able to chart our own course and build our own security and prosperity.”

“That is a case we will win,” Sturgeon told the audience in Glasgow, the city she represents in the Scottish parliament and – as the nationalist herself noted – a city that had voted to split with the UK the first time around in 2014.

Collision course with May

The Conservatives’ party conference last week raised the specter of a clean break with the EU and its single market. There, PM Theresa May made her clearest comments yet on what sort of a Brexit she envisaged, saying she would not accept free movement of people as a condition for continued single market membership.

At least as it stands, Brussels’ stance is that free trade and movement are inextricably linked.

The markets have also responded to May’s comments, with the pound crashing on Wednesday to its lowest level ever against the US dollar. Against the euro, itself not as strong as the dollar in recent months and years, the pound is falling fast, but not to record lows. A potential absence of breakfast spread Marmite in supermarket chain Tesco – as British-Dutch manufacturer Unilever seeks a higher shelf price to reflect the weakness of the pound – served as an early warning of the crash’s effects for consumers.

South of the border on Thursday, a legal challenge to Theresa May’s right to start negotiations on leaving the EU without first winning parliamentary approval opened in the country’s High Court. A verdict was expected by Monday.

May and Sturgeon have held talks since the referendum, and the head of the Scottish government addressed the Conservative directly during the key part of her speech mooting a second referendum.

“In 2014, you told us Scotland was an equal partner in the UK. Well, the moment has come to prove it. If you value the UK – as you say you do – it’s up to you to prove it can work for Scotland,” Sturgeon said, nominally addressing May. “The ball is in your court. But hear this – if you think for one single second that I’m not serious about doing what it takes to protect Scotland’s interests, then think again.”

Karabakh independence was key historic landmark – opinion

September 2, 2014 By administrator

The proclamation of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) as an independent republic was an important landmark for our future, a historian has said, remembering the developments that led to the country’s independence.

“September 2 marked the birth of the second Armenian republic. Artsakh proclaimed itself a republic much earlier than did the Republic of Armenia,” Edik Minasyan, the dean of the Yerevan State University’s History Department, told reporters at a news conference devoted to the 23rd anniversary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.

The historian remembered that the situation in Artsakh was extremely complicated in the early 1990’s, with Soviet Azerbaijan pursuing the policy of the Armenians’ deportation in collaboration with the USSR forces.

Minasyan noted that Azerbaijan proclaimed independence in the wake of a parliament decision adopted in August 1991. “The question should have been rapidly resolved under such circumstances, given especially that there were all the legal and historical conditions for declaring the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic an independent state. The USSR law allowed for that,” he explained.

The historian noted that Karabakh never before made part of the Azerbaijani republic, adding that the fact never prevented the latter from exercising violence against the former autonomous region.

He noted further that the proclamation of Karabakh was consistent with the norms and principles of international law, with the country subsequentluy electing a parliament and adopting its state flag, coat of arm and national anthem. “The defense of Artsakh and Armenia’s borders is in reliable hands today,” Minasyan said.