The Foreign Policy of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh

• 02.16.2015, 18:48
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  NKR,  Info

2014 was especially a productive year for Armenians in terms of achievements towards the international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR or Republic of Artsakh). Within twelve months NKR managed significantly to add the number of its sister cities, for the first time in the European continent a resolution was passed that supported the NKR right of self-determination.  Within last two years the number of the US states that recognized the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic increased to five in addition to New South West state of Australia.

Those achievements in the international arena along with the internal ones, particularly the development of democracy in the country, once more prove that each year NKR does a step forward in the process of state building, the reality that sooner or later is to be admitted  by other countries and  international actors.

Being de jure recognized by the states that enjoy partial recognition; such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic continues to develop its de-facto diplomatic relations with many recognized states.  The international relations of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic can be categorized under the following main groups: parliamentary friendship groups, sister cities, international recognition. In the following part the article will discuss each of those categories separately.

Parliamentary friendship groups are established with the aim to developed bilateral relations between the two states. By the establishment of such kind of groups the state governments express their willingness to develop parliamentary diplomacy that will give them an opportunity to have additional tools for cooperation in the international arena. In this sense the establishment of the parliamentary friendship group between the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania and the Parliament of the NKR on February 26 of 2013 can be considered a real achievement. By the establishment of the parliamentary friendship group between the NKR and the Republic of Lithuania, the nine deputies, who signed the declaration, accepted the right of self-determination as one of the basic rights in international law, consistent with democratic values and European common ideas. In this context another major achievement was the establishment of Friendship Circle between France and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on March 19, 2013. By the establishment of the Friendship Cycle the representatives of major political forces in France also support the right of self-determination of Artsakh people as an indispensable part of freedom and democratic values incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The joining of the Mayor of the French city of Valence to this Friendship Cycle was a recent achievement in this sphere

Another form of diplomacy is considered to be the so-called "city diplomacy", when legal agreements are made between towns and cities to deepen their commercial and cultural ties, thus boosting intercultural dialogue between twinning cities. The achievements of the Armenian Second Republic in this sphere are also immense.  The cities of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic have already become twins with different major cities of the USA such as Berdzor (NKR)-Highland (USA), Stepanakert (NKR)-Montebello (USA) and the like. This year Friendship Declarations were signed between the cities  Vienne (France) and Hadrut (NKR),  Bourg-lès-Valence(France) and Sushi (NKR), Askeran (NKR) and Bouc-Bel-Air (France), Hadrut (NKR) and Burbank (USA), Karvachar (NKR) and  Pico Rivera (USA).  In 2014 cooperation agreement was also signed between Donostia (Basque Autonomous Community in Spain) and Stepanakert (NKR). By signing friendship declarations the mayors of twin  cities condemned the international isolation of the people of the Republic of Artsakh and called for strengthening cooperation in such spheres as education, sport, culture, trade, local-self governed and etc.

In 2014, another major achievement was a resolution supporting the right of self-determination of NKR adopted by the Basque Parliament. This was the first time that such a resolution was adopted in the European continent. Last year the president of Gipuzkoa province in the Basque Country Martin Garitano also made an official statement on the recognition of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Last autumn the Parliament Speakers Council of Navara (Autonomous Region of Spain) made an official statement contending that NKR should be a permanent party in all negotiation formats.

The process of the international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is ongoing. In the last two years  five  US states, such as California (May, 2014), Louisiana(May 2013), Maine (April 2013), Massachusetts (August 2012), Rhode Island (May 2013) have recognized the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, while in 2014 five US stated rejected the bill recognizing territorial integrality of Azerbaijani Republic (Hawaii, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wyoming). In 2012, the independence of NKR was also recognized by New South West state of Australia.  In addition the NKR, although still not recognized, has its permanent missions in the Russian Federation, France, Australia, Germany etc.

Thus it should be stated that during twenty-four years of its independence Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has already managed to reach great achievements not only in its internal political life (today NKR has strong army and high level of democracy; the evidence of which was the Freedom House report for 2014, where NKR by the level of its civil liberties is higher than neighboring Azerbaijan) but in its international affairs as well. Year-by-year the position of NKR becomes stronger in the international arena as a result of the increasing number of recorded successes in the process of its international recognition. In this context huge progress, reported in 2014, comes to prove that the world becomes more prone to the fact that it does not matter whether the state is recognized by other states or not, nobody can deny the fact that in reality it exists and its citizens deserve to be protected by the international law as much as the citizens of other recognized states.