ICJ did not recognize Kosovo, Armenian expert says
Neither the U.N. nor the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recognized Kosovo's independence, Director of the Institute of Caucasus Alexander Iskandaryan told a press conference, commenting on the recently stirred up excitement at the ICJ judgment.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, August 04, 2010
"The court ruled no one prohibits national entities from declaring independence, but nothing more than that," Iskandaryan said. According to him, the issue of Kosovo's independence was settled by the U.S. as far back as 1999 rather than by the ICJ in 2010.
"Fifteen persons voted, and none of them, except for the Mexican representative, said anything in contrast to his state's official position. Just look, the Russia, Slovakian, Brazilian and Moroccan representatives were against, which was actually known in advance," Iskandaryan said. He pointed out that all the Kosovo-related developments are of political, rather than legal or demographic nature.
Speaking of Nagorno-Karabakh, the expert pointed out that it is no so transparent. "Legally the issues are actually identical. However, the Karabakh people won war by themselves, whereas Kosovo was helped to win; the Karabakh people have been building their homeland by themselves, whereas Kosovo is being built with outside assistance; nobody is helping Karabakh, whereas Kosovo has U.S. backup," Iskandaryan said.
Fifty to seventy national entities worldwide are seeking independence but they cannot be expected to gain it all at a time. "Gaining independence is a long and complicated process, an issue not be settled by court," Iskandaryan said.
