Improvement in the American-Russian relations will be of benefit to the entire Caucasus and Armenia — expert

Read it in Russian

Productive relations between the leading actors of global security — the USA and Russia — will certainly undergo improvement not only in the interests of the two countries but also in terms of global security imperatives in general. Commandant of the Institute for National Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, Doctor of Political Sciences Major General Hayk Kotanjian stated this during his interview with a REGNUM correspondent.

He noted that recovery of the American-Russian relations will be of benefit to the entire Caucasus as well, including Armenia “the balanced national security policy of which is based on the principle of complementarity”.

Touching upon the process of settling the Karabakh conflict Kotanjian mentioned that taking into account the lessons from the war in Abkhazia and South Ossetia the conflict should be considered in terms of “colonial essence of certain antidemocratic trends in political-legal culture of Azerbaijan, in particular in the field of constitutional guarantees on protecting collective human rights and freedoms”. The expert emphasized that the principles of international law on equality and self-determination of peoples, which are top commitments for the UN members, are not appropriately reflected in the Constitution of Azerbaijan.  

“With regard to the dynastic succession Azerbaijan is turning into a classic ‘petro-state’ where power stems from control over its oil and gas market interests rather than the interests of democracy”, Doctor Kotanjian stated.

 The expert noted that in the modern political history there are many convincing examples of democratic self-determination of peoples in exact conformity with the principles of the UN Charter. He brought up the examples of self-determination of Bangladesh, Eritrea, East Timor, Montenegro emphasizing that these states gained self-determination through referenda without the interference of populations of the metropolitan states, namely Pakistan, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Serbia- Yugoslavia. “Taking into consideration these facts it is expedient that the Co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group constructs its activities on the systemic use of UN Charter principles without prioritizing the principle of territorial integrity which is equivalent to the UN Charter principle on equality and self-determination of peoples”, Kotanjian summed up.