Adventitious Independence

• 01.16.2015, 17:34
•  NKR,  Info

From the series of "Internationally recognized small countries"

Years ago, when the official Azerbaijan "walled up" small Karabakh, the residents of the Nagorno- Karabagh Republic (NKR) used to joke: "Let’s declare war against America, then capitulate to it and become part of America. Let Azerbaijan then compete with us. " Joke remains a joke, but it turns out that the joke derives from the real life.  In the modern world there are many cases, when a state declarers its independence for a day and sometimes declaration of its independence becomes just a consequence of random facts. An example of such kind of adventitious independence can be the so called "complaining-state" of the Conch Republic.  This "self-declared" republic is situated in the territory of the US city Key West, which is known to us as a place, where one of the stages of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution negotiation took place.  It is interesting to mention that although they declared their independence, the residents of Key West in reality did not want to be separated from the US. The cause of such an extraordinary step - complaint through self-declaration, was because of the actions of the federal government, which caused a number of inconveniences for the residents of the Conch Republic.

In 1982 the US border inspection office decided to establish a block-post on the highway that connects Key West with the capital of the province, Miami. The block-post was to prevent the flow of the illegal immigrants and drugs through the Caribbean port city Key West to the US. Anyhow this post caused a number of inconveniences to the residents. The traffic movement slowed down. The Americans had to stand in queues for a long time after which they were forced to stand the procedure of unpleasant police inspection. The city board of the Key West made a number of complaints to the federal government. They even initiated legal proceedings, but all those actions were in vain. It was this time that the mayor of the city declared the independence of Key West and established the Conch Republic in its territory. Expressing his compliant in the tricky-intriguing way, the mayor declared himself a prime minister of Conch, which was followed by a one minute war initiated by the self-declared republic against the US.  After the war they surrendered and demanded one trillion dollar as a humanitarian assistance for the defeated ones. All those actions had one purpose – to make society be more attentive to the existing problem.   Afterwards, the problem was immediately solved.

Another example of the independent state is Sovereign Order of Malta, the territory of which is compromised of a number of private houses in Rome. The number of residents is approximately ten thousand. From the perspective of international law Order of Malta is neither a state nor a state formation. In the international practice it is often considered as a microstate enclave. In spite of the fact that it is situated in the territory of Rome, Sovereign Order of Malta is completely independent from Italy. It is very hard to get a passport of this state, but the one who manages to get it, has the right to enter more than 32 states of the world without entry visa. The official languages in the microstate are Italian and Latin. It is also worth to notice that there is a gateway with a very interesting hole, which is guarded by two carabineers. This hole is very interesting because simultaneously three states can be seen through it - Sovereign Order of Malta, Vatican and Italy.

Ten kilometers from the British coasts on the sea platform another example of a unique microstate is situated – Principality of Sealand.  The microstate was established during the Second World War. In 1942 the British Navy Forces deployed a number of towers in the coastal territories.  One of them is Roughs Tower. After the end of the military operations, the main part of the towers was destroyed, but Roughs Tower, being situated outside the water territory of Britain, was preserved.  In 1966 the Major of the British Reserve Army Paddy Roy Bates, declared the building as a self-ruled state and him as a prince- Roy I. The declaration of Sealand took place on September 2, 1967. Since 1972 Sealand has had its own currency.

In 1975, the first constitution of Sealand went into force, as well as its flag and emblems were invented.  Today Sealand has all the legal bases to declare its independence:  firstly, because it was declared as a buffer water zone, secondly there is the decision of the British court of 1968 to cease the application of the British legislation in Sealand, and thirdly, according to the international law the size of the state cannot become an obstacle for the recognition of a state. Another example for the international experience can be the Pitcairn Islands, where only 60 residents are registered. The most important thing is that there are several facts of de facto recognition of Sealand. The Montevideo Convention (One of the rare international documents, in which from the perspective of public international right legal features are enumerated. The document was signed during Pan-American VII conference in 1993) confirms that the states have the right of existence and self-defense in spite of their official recognition. In the modern international experience "silent recognition" (non-diplomatic) is a widespread phenomenon. It happens in cases when a regime organizes de facto governance of a state, has relations with some countries, has certain features peculiar a state, but has no de jure recognition. From this perspective theoretically the position of Sealand is quite convincing.

All these arguments are also true for all the other cases of self-declared states, which today organize de facto governance in the territory belonging to them and have all attributes of sovereignty.  For example, the so-called silent recognition of the similar state like NKR (the authorities of which organize de fact governance of their territory) has already become a de facto reality. Both according to the Montevideo Convention and as a  result of other legal acts  (due to which other states of the world  step-by-step  gained international recognition) the international community will gradually come to the conclusion  that all the states, big or small, recognized or non-recognized have undisputed right to be the governors  of their own fate.  

By Karin Stepanyan