The dissolution of the USSR saw an increase in armed attacks against populated areas within Azerbaijan both by Armenia itself, and by Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, nationalist forces in power in the Republic of Armenia commenced an aggressive campaign to occupy Nagorno-Karabakh and carried out attacks and assaults on Azerbaijanis who were forcibly expelled from both Nagorno-Karabakh and their historic lands in Armenia. Thus, the Armenian territorial claims and actions were contrary to Soviet constitutional law. 3 The USSR authorities declared the Armenian legislature’s decision to be null and void ab initio and giving rise to a serious breach of the USSR Constitution.
On 15 June 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR adopted a resolution approving a decision made by the Congress of Armenian Delegates of Nagorno-Karabakh regarding unification of the NKAO with the Armenian SSR. In the late 1980s, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia laid claim to the NKAO of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. The provisions of the USSR Constitution which stipulated the ‘sovereign Union republics’ right of secession, as well provisions which prescribed their territorial integrity, provided the basis for the consensual application of the uti possidetis juris principle once the former administrative borders of Soviet republics crystallised into the international borders of newly independent States. This was expressly recognised in the Badinter Arbitration Commission Opinions for Yugoslavia. These references to the constitutional right of secession are important when determining the status of administrative units, and the scope of their rights and autonomy. The right to secession contained in the Soviet Constitution granted to the Union republics is essential to our understanding of the application of the general principle of uti possidetis juris to this matter. The 1977 USSR Constitution, preceded by its 19 Constitutions, explicitly stated which republics held a right of secession and limited their number to the fifteen Soviet republics forming the Constitutional parts of the USSR. On 30 August 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence within the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR, including the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO). November 1984, where the ICJ expressly determined that military action of regular armed forces of one state in relation to the international borders of another state is an armed attack and aggression.Īzerbaijan established itself as the first republic in the Muslim Orient between 19, when it was incorporated into the Soviet Union and became one of the USSR’s constituent republics. Abushov (eds.) Self-Determination and Secession in International Law (London, OUP 2014) pp.191-213Ĥ Kalbajar, Lachyn, Zangilan, Gubadly, Jabrayil, and parts of Fizuli and Aghdam.ĥ UNHCR Statistical Yearbook 2002, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2002) Appeal 2003-2004: Azerbaijan Appeal No 01.78/2003 International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Geneva, 2003)Ħ United Nations Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884, United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 48/11,60/285 and 62/243 PACE Resolutions 1059, 1119, 1416, 15, EU Parliament Resolutions 22 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Resolutions 21/9, 25/9, 10/11, 10/37, 9/39, 10/42, 10/43, 4/43 and 12/46.ħ Letter of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to the OSCE Permanent Council on the OSCE Minsk Group Fact Finding Mission to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan Surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh United Nations (21 March 2005) A/59/747-S/Ĩ Letter dated 29 March 2011 from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General United Nations (30 March 2011) A/65/801–S/2011/208ĩ Address by Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to the General Debate of the 75th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, 24 September 2020.ġ0 See Nicaragua v United States of America (Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua, 10 Judgment of 26 Unger, Constitutional Development in USSR (London, Methuen 1981), p.60Ģ EC Yugoslav Arbitration Commission.
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