“Nagorno-Karabagh: Legal Aspects”

MIA Publishers, Fifth Edition, Moscow 2015
By Shahen Avakian
The study covers the legal aspects of Nagorno Karabagh problem. It examines the issues of Law as they affected the legal status of Nagorno Karabagh.

The author is an expert of International Law. He has graduated from the Paris Sorbonne University and is specialized in International Public Law and International Organizations law.

Considering the intrinsic right of nations to self-determination and being guided by the free will of the people of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic expressed at the Republican referendum on December 10, 1991;

Realizing responsibility for the destiny of the historical Motherland;

Being committed to the principles of the September 2, 1991 Declaration On Proclamation of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic;

On September 10, 1991, a group of independent observers arrived in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic for observing the course of the referendum on the status of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

The observers worked in the town of Stepanakert, the Askeran, Hadrut, Martakert, Martuni, and Shahumian regions. The observers visited over 30 polling stations and observed the process of votes’ calculation.

Joint session of the Nagorno Karabakh Oblast and Shahoumian regional councils of people’s deputies with the participation of deputies of councils of all levels

Expressing the will of people, in fact, fixed by a referendum and in the decisions of the NKAO and Shahoumian regional authorities in 1988-1991, its strive for freedom, independence, equality and good neighbourly relations;

ascertaining proclamation by the Azerbaijani Republic of the “restoration of 1918-1920 state independence”;

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
LAW
CONCERNING THE PROCEDURE OF SECESSION OF A SOVIET REPUBLIC FROM THE USSR

Article 1.
The procedure of secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR is conducted in accordance with the Article 72 of the Constitution of the USSR under the present Law.

Article 2.
The decision on secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR is made by the will of the people of that Soviet Republic by means of a referendum.

DECISION OF THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE NKAO COUNCIL OF PEOPLES DEPUTIES OF XX SESSION

“ON A PETITION TO THE SUPREME COUNCILS OF AZERBAIJANI SSR AND ARMENIAN SSR ON THE NKAO’s SECESSION FROM SOVIET AZERBAIJAN AND ITS TRANSFER TO SOVIET ARMENIA”