Dull interpretation of international documents by Tigran Torosyan

During the meeting with speaker of Armenian parliament Tigran Torosyan, PACE chairman Luis Maria de Puig confirmed position of his organization on the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict on Nagorno Karabakh, according to which "the conflict should be settled only peacefully, in line with international norms and on the basis of the Helsinki final act of 1975- principle of territorial integrity and right for self-determination". At the same time, the PACE chairman noted that the demand of execution of 1416 PACE resolution, fixing these principles, remains in force.

In turn, Armenian parliament speaker Tigran Torosyan, attempting to substantiate the legitimacy of Nagorno Karabakh's separation from Azerbaijan noted that "according to PACE resolution 1416, any territory can separate from the state peacefully and legally on the basis of people's will, that is the right for self-determination is observed (in case with Nagorno Karabakh). At the same time, the resolution notes that none of the Assembly member-states can join any state, that the principle of the territorial integrity is also observed".

Commenting on Tigran Torosyan's words, political reviewer Vuqar Seidov called will a "willful and dull interpretation of an international document with a rude extracting of separate phrases from the overall context". Seidov voiced surprise that such absurd is voiced by the speaker of the parliament, whose task is to observe the spirit of legislative acts, international documents and resolutions.

"Sometimes it seems that Armenians either can not read or they can read but not analyze, or they can do both things but naively suppose that people in other countries can not it. Referring to a source, Armenians distort the text and interpret it so that the final conclusions have almost nothing in common with the document. By the way, not only Armenian politicians, but also historians, work this way with the sources, in the result of which we have an Armenian interpretation of the region, exaggerating their own history and belittling the history of all neighbors without exception. It is not only unprofessional, but also not ethical", said Seidov.

According to the political scientist, the point is not a manuscript, unavailable or concealed in Matenaradan which makes it impossible to recheck the conclusions of the historians and reveal the false interpretation of their original source, but it is a PACE resolution, quite available for public, posted on the website of the Assembly in Russia and in English.

"What does Tigran Torosyan and his colleagues reckon on, interpreting the text of the resolution in Armenia, as any person can independently familiarize with the text of the resolution and compare it with the interpretation of the Armenian speaker", noted Vuqar Seidov.

It should be noted that point 2 of resolution 1416 (2005) is as follows:

"The Assembly is anxious that military actions and the widely spread acts of ethnic animosity have lead to mass expatriation for ethnic belonging and emergence of monoethnic regions, reminding of the terrible concept of ethnic cleansing. The Assembly again confirms that independence and separation of any regional territory from the state is possible only in the result of legal and peaceful process, based on democratic support to the residents of this territory and not in the result of armed conflict, leading to expelling for ethnic belonging and factual annexation of such a territory by another state. The Assembly again states that occupation of a foreign land by any member-state is a serious violation of the responsibilities of this state as the CE member and confirms the right of the displaced persons for safe and worthy return to their houses.

According to Seidov, speaker Torosyan, referring to point 2 of the resolution, attempts to substantiate the legitimacy of separation of Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan, noting the peaceful and lawful nature of cessation and will of people, based on this process.

"How can it all, stated by Torosyan, sort with what is fixed in the resolution, is unclear, as it is clear to anyone, even not educated people, that the process of separation of Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan was neither peaceful nor legal considering their correspondence to constitution of the country and international law or based on democratic will of all residents of the oblast. Otherwise, why do the authors of the resolution, fixing conditions of legitimacy of the separation of territories from the states, need to put comma instead of a full stop and trouble themselves with listing circumstances, under which separation can not be considered lawful"? And isn't it primitive for Torosyan to take the first part of the sentence from the context, ignoring the second part. which hampers its arguments?"

Speaking of Torosyan's attempt to explain to the PACE chairman that the process of Nagorno Karabakh separation from Azerbaijan does not contradict to conditions of the realization of the right for self-determination, fixed in resolution 1416, Vuqar Seidov noted that though this attempt of the Armenian speaker is ridiculous, but it is not so ridiculous as his next attempt to explain to de Puig that recognition of Nagorno Karabakh independence will not imply violation of the territorial integrity of any country.

"Carefully analyzing Torosyan's words, I tried to understand, how can separation of Nagorno Karabakh not violate the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and comply with the spirit of resolution 1416, according to the speaker, which states inadmissibility of annexation of the territory by another state. And suddenly I got it. Saying that none of the Assembly member-states can not annex to any country, Torosyan, probably, implies that there are three independent states in the South Caucasus, alongside with Georgia-Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan (of course, without Nagorno Karabakh). This is a starting point. Everything is even more interesting. To adhere to the principle of territorial integrity and not to offend anyone, none of the PACE member-states (Armenia, Azerbaijan or Georgia), can join Nagorno Karabakh -an independent sovereign state though (temporarily) not the PACE member. In this case, the territorial integrity of the three South Caucasus member-states of PACE will not be violated, in the sense that their territory... will not expand. I do not see any other key to Torosyan's rebus. If Torosyan's means a different interpretation of his model, under which separation of Nagorno Karabakh will be considered both legitimate and not violating the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, I will be glad to hear it", said Seidov.

The political scientist reminded that the resolution calls the things by their names: the fact of occupation of a significant part of Azerbaijan by Armenians is recognized and the forces "still" controlling Nagorno Karabakh are called separatists (paragraph 1). Along with occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by undisclosed Armenian forces, the resolution also speaks of the inadmissibility of "occupation of a foreign state by the CE member-state, implying the Armenian Republic (paragraph 2). There is also a reference to the factual annexation of the territory by another state-comments are unnecessary here, as it is clear from the context of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict which country is implied under conducting the factual annexation "by another state".

Moreover, the resolution calls on execution of four resolutions of the UN Security Council 822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993) (paragraph 3). The text of the resolutions of the UN Security Council is available in the internet. Gradually, calling on the Azerbaijani government to establish contacts with both communities of the Nagorno Karabakh region (paragraph 8), the resolution recognizes the fact of existence of the Azerbaijani community and confirms the right of displaced persons for safe and worthy return to their homes (paragraph 2). By the way, stressing the fact of existence of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno Karabakh, in its resolution, PACE indirectly recognizes ineffectiveness of the referendum on independence of the oblast, held in conditions of the absence of the greater part of the population in the region because of ethnic cleansings and appearance of monoethnic regions.

"The resolution calls all these events by their names, which complicates the work of the Armenian parliament speaker on search of ways out of the clumsy situation", said Vuqar Seidov in conclusion.

/Day.Az/