Announcement: The Alma-Ata Declaration makes no mention of the former union republics of the Soviet Union

We present the text of the statement below.

"On September 19, the armed forces of Azerbaijan started massive shelling of Stepanakert and other cities of Nagorno-Karabakh using artillery and anti-aircraft missiles during a large-scale aggression. In order to prevent the further escalation of military operations and to save the lives of the civilian population, the President of the Republic of Artsakh had to fulfill the ultimatum demand of Azerbaijan and sign an illegal decree in 2024. on ending the existence of the Republic of Artsakh from January 1.

This became 2020. After the aggression of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia in 2020. one of the main results of the three-year process of implementing the ceasefire conditions of the tripartite declaration of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed on November 9.

The actions of Azerbaijan prior to this decree, in 2020. The 44-day war, the 280-day blockade of all transport links connecting NKR with the outside world, 2023. The military aggression of September 19, which was accompanied by violence, killings of the civilian population, including children and the elderly, and acts of vandalism, testify to the deliberate actions, the aim of which was the expulsion and genocide of Armenians living in their native land for thousands of years. Today, almost all of the surviving population left NKR.

What happened also characterizes the results of the negotiation processes that took place between the conflicting parties at the Moscow, Washington and Brussels platforms and were accompanied by optimistic statements and calls for the protection of the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians. Against the criminal acts of Azerbaijan and to prevent the genocide of the Armenians of Karabakh, the measures stipulated by the international obligations of the UN member states were not applied. The UN Security Council, discussing the issue of the humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh in an extraordinary session, limited itself to calls for restraint and the preservation of human rights directed at both the aggressor and its victim.

In order to "justify" such inaction, the texts and meaning of the key concepts contained in international documents, which were referred to by the heads of states and their foreign political departments, in pursuit of their geopolitical goals, are distorted. As a legal "justification" they refer to the 1991 Law of the newly independent states formed as a result of the dissolution of the USSR. to the December 21 Alma-Ata declaration. As Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently stated in the European Parliament, the republics that signed the declaration recognize territorial integrity, each other's sovereignty, the inviolability of the existing, that is, administrative borders, and therefore the existing administrative borders between the republics of the Soviet Union become state borders. Similar references to the Alma-Ata declaration were presented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the head of the European Council Charles Michel and others.

However, the recognition and respect of the territorial integrity of the states that signed the Alma-Ata Declaration is related to the inviolability of the borders existing at the time of signing the document, not the administrative borders of the former USSR republics, which are not mentioned in the declaration at all. It is important to note that the lack of mention of the administrative borders of the former union republics is due to the fact that at the time of signing this declaration, the borders of some states that had already become independent as a result of the collapse of the USSR did not coincide either de facto or de jure with the administrative borders of the union republics. There are no numbers in the text of the declaration that define the territory of the states that signed those documents. There is no line that the existing administrative borders between the republics of the Soviet Union become state borders. Azerbaijan left the USSR in gross violations of the current legislation, rejecting the succession of the Azerbaijan SSR, de facto and de jure without the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region. This gave the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic the right to independently manage its future destiny in accordance with the laws of the USSR and the provisions of international law, creating an independent state entity.

When referring to the Declaration of Alma-Ata, the right of peoples to self-determination, to renounce the use of force and the threat of force, economic and any other methods of coercion, peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for human rights and freedoms, including the rights of national minorities, conscientious fulfillment of obligations and other universally recognized international law its provisions on principles and norms, which Azerbaijan has grossly violated.

The distortions and arbitrary interpretations of the key concepts of the declaration and the statements of the leaders of Armenia, the European Union and some countries and international organizations involved in the conflict settlement process based on them take place against the background of the deaths of thousands of civilians. Hundreds of innocent people are missing, and unknown numbers are being tortured and ill-treated in hydrocarbon-rich Azerbaijan prisons. The representatives of the military and political leadership of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic were kidnapped and subjected to illegal trials. On the one hand, a threatening precedent of equating peoples participating in national liberation movements and fighting for self-determination with terrorist organizations is being created, on the other hand, criminal acts such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity are being encouraged under the false guise of territorial integrity.

Another consequence of such distortions was the direct threat to the territorial integrity of Armenia. Modern Azerbaijan makes claims that have no legal basis to the territories of the Republic of Armenia, calling them "enclaves". If we stick to the Alma-Ata declaration, then neither the so-called "enclaves" nor the NKR territory, according to the declaration, are located within the "existing borders" of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which signed that document. Aliyev threatens to forcefully open the extraterritorial "Zangezur Corridor" in the southern Syunik region of Armenia, calling it "Western Azerbaijan". All these illegal demands are accompanied by direct use of force, 2021-2022. With the occupation of the sovereign territory of Armenia, the periodic shelling of border posts and villages, which led to the death of hundreds of people.

Azerbaijan's criminal activities pose a real threat not only to the security of the South Caucasus, but also to the explosive Middle Eastern region.

We appeal to the leaders of the countries, the leaders of the European Union, their respective structures, and the parliamentarians with the demand to give an adequate assessment of the legal basis of self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in their native land and to condemn the criminal actions of Azerbaijan.

It is necessary to take decisive measures in defense of NKR Armenians, to apply sanctions against the state that subjected the people to aggression and genocide.

We call on international organizations, political and legal institutions and organizations dealing with human rights protection issues, political and public figures, and the expert community to raise their voice against political manipulations, which must be immediately exposed at all levels and prevented in order to prevent legal arbitrariness and its destructive consequences. :