Back in January, Aravot.am asked the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a written request to express a position regarding a statement by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov regarding the right of nations to self-determination and the principles of territorial integrity of states. In particular, Sergey Lavrov, explaining Russia’s position on the right to self-determination, stated on January 18: “The UN charter says that the main thing is the sovereign equality of states (суверенное регенство). The principle of self-determination of nations is mentioned first, as well as the territorial integrity of states. These two principles, the right of nations to self-determination and territorial integrity, which are mentioned at the same level, from the beginning, during the formation and adoption of the UN Charter, raised the question: which is the primary one?
All the members of the UN discussed for several years, including this issue and other issues related to the interpretation of the charter. As a result, in 1970, the declaration of the General Assembly on the developing principles of international law and relations between states was published and still has legal force. In it, a whole section is dedicated to the self-determination of states. It says that this principle is universal, that there is also a principle of respect for territorial integrity, and that everyone is obliged to respect the principle of territorial integrity to those states, listen (READ) carefully, whose governments pursue the principle of self-determination and represent the interests of all the peoples living in the given territory. In other words, according to the charter, we are obliged to respect the territorial integrity of the states whose governments represent the entire population of their countries.”
We asked the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs to answer the following questions.
– What is the official position of the RA Foreign Ministry regarding the mentioned approach?
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– To what extent Armenian diplomacy will pursue this claim as an argument to the international community regarding the Artsakh issue?
Inna Torgomyan, Acting Head of the Information and Public Diplomacy Department of the Foreign Ministry, answered our question. “We inform you that RA pursues the goals and principles of the UN Charter, regardless of the approaches of other UN member states.”
There is no answer to the second question.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
