Territorial integrity cannot be opposed to self-determination, Armenia’s Deputy FM says

“Territorial integrity of a country can’t be opposed to the people’s right to self-determination,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan has said.

The comments come after the statement of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the opening of a military camp in Baku.

“We will never allow the creation of the second fictitious Armenian state on the territory of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh will never be granted independence”, Aliyev said.

“The fact that the state of Azerbaijan appeared on the world’s map less than a century ago, cannot serve as a justification for Azerbaijani leadership’s lack of knowledge of fundamental norms of international law,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said in comments to Panorama.am.

“It is worth reminding that according to the UN Charter the status of self-determined subject is decided by its people, and the territorial integrity of a country can’t be opposed to the people’s right to self-determination,” he added.

“The leadership of Azerbaijan should have read the UN Charter long ago not to become an object of mockery with its rattling illiteracy, and should come to terms with the inevitability of the prospective to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” the Deputy Foreign Minister stated.