Interfax, Russia
May 15 2010


Peoples, not nations, have right to self-determination - official

YEREVAN May 15


It is not nations but peoples who have the right to
self-determination, said Shavarsh Kocharian, Armenian Deputy Foreign
Minister, on Saturday.

"The Azerbaijani president should have long realized that under
international law it is peoples, not nations, who have the right to
self-determination," Kocharian was quoted as saying by the Armenian
Foreign Ministry's press office.

"In that case, if Turks and Azeris are the same nation, then
Azerbaijan cannot be independent," Kocharian said, commenting on the
Azeri president's statement that the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians have
failed to exercise their right to self-determination.

Armenians have already exercised their right to self-determination and
they have the state of Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev told a press
conference held jointly with Serbian President Boris Tadic. "However,
the Armenian logic is that if they try to exercise their right to
self- determination where they live, then several Armenian states will
be created across the world," Aliyev said.