The General Assembly of the United Nations today unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. This resolution joins the earlier court ruling by ICJ on Kosovo's independence opening up a door for the international recognition of the independence of Nagorno Karabakh, settling the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Today's UN resolution opens the way for Kosovo and Serbia to start the first ever direct talks after the European Union and the United States recognized Kosovo as a sovereign independent state. Serbia responded saying it will never recognize the independence of Kosovo.
However, when Serbia's Foreign MInister Vuk Jeremic finished his speech at the UN he said that his country is "looking to the future". In the meanwhile, BBC's Mark Lowen reports from Belgrade that "the adoption of the UN resolution means Serbia has in effect given up its diplomatic fight for Kosovo."
West sees Kosovo as an exception while Armenia as a precedence for Nagorno Karabakh.
Observers in Armenia see these two rulings as a fair and legitimate precedence for the international recognition of Nagorno Karabakh Republic's independence. The West says Kosovo's case is usually unique as Albanians were subject to ethnic cleansing by Serbia.
Diplomats and historians in Armenia agree by pointing to the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan within Azerbaijan, which gained the Autonomous status because of its Armenian population and has no single Armenian living in the region thanks to the ethnic cleansing policies of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, of course, does not want to lose Nagorno Karabakh and looks at the issue as of territorial one. Armenia points to the right to self-determination of the people of Nagorno Karabakh. International mediators also take this line calling for a referendum in Nagorno Karabakh do decide its final status.
During the cold war the International law has not supported secessions, but is not against it either. The promises of Soviet ideology for the nations were never materialized and movements began for freedom and independence after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Block.
De fact states like Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, say these decisions by ICJ and UN stress the right to self-determination above territorial sovereignty. If Kosovo has the right to be independent, what is it that prevents exercising the same right for the people of Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the proponents ask. Principles of the international law and order call for consistency in order to be fair and convincing. If Kosovo has the right to self-determination and freedom, so do Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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