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23.07.2010 17:32
 Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan says yesterday’s ruling of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo was unprecedented, since for the first time it refers to the correlation between two principles – territorial integrity and self-determination of peoples.
“The self-determination of peoples is one of UN objectives, while territorial integrity is a tool for reaching that objective,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.
According to the diplomat, this decision of the ICJ shows that “when there is self-determination, the territorial integrity is secondary. “This is what the ICJ decision meant,” he said.
Shavarsh Kocharyan also quoted the President of the International Court, Hisashi Owada, as saying that “international law does not contain obstacles for declaring independence.” The Armenian Deputy Minister recalled the words of the official representatives of the US, who said that “international law neither prohibits the declaration of independence nor permits it.”
“After all this it become quite obvious that Azerbaijan’s assertions contradict the international law. The International Court actually said ‘yes’ to the independence of two Albanian states – Albania and Kosovo. We all know that the same Albanians live in Kosovo. After all this the high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan will not be able to declare that Armenians cannot have two states,” Shavarsh Kocharyan stated.
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