Experts dispute on UN role and position in Armenian-Azeri border conflict

After the collapse of the USSR, the United Nations (UN) recognized the independence of Azerbaijan and Armenia, without specifying their borders, since this is not its responsibility, experts assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the issue of defining the Azerbaijani border with the southern regions of Armenia arose after the 2020 autumn aggravation of the Karabakh conflict.

The UN "usually does not establish the borders on the ground when one's independence is gained," Alexei Gunya, a senior researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

It is not a UN prerogative to set borders. "There is no administration or department there to deal with this," Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst, has explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

If the UN recognizes a state's independence, then it also recognizes the borders "in accordance with the maps provided by the state," said Tatiana Kashirina, the head of the Division of International Relations of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 10, 2021 at 02:33 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.