Svante Cornell, director of the Washington-based Central Asia-Caucasus Institute of the John Hopkins University, has said the case of Nagorno-Karabakh was very different from that of Kosovo.
"One difference is the extent of human rights violations and the changes in population structure. In the case of Kosovo, there was ethnic cleansing committed against Kosovars by Serbia, which is what triggered multilateral international intervention under the NATO umbrella. Thus, international intervention restored the demographic status before the war."
Cornell said in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh "the situation is very different..."
He noted there was massive ethnic cleansing committed by the separatist side, especially in the case of Karabakh in 1992-93.
"These are, therefore, in many ways mirror images of the Kosovo situation, strongly weakening the case for independence made by the separatists. It is a long-standing principle of international law that it is unacceptable to first alter the demographic situation and then make political declarations of independence."

 AzerTAc