CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 92

TERRITORIAL AUTONOMY AND SECESSION AS STRATEGIES OF CONFLICT …
In the next section, the article will examine the realisation of the institutional
territorial autonomy of the NKAO and its role in the management of inter-
ethnic relations and mobilization.
The Territorial Autonomy of the NKAO within the Azerbaijani
SSR
The constitutional arrangement that set up the legal structures and
functions in Nagorno Karabakh 9 foresaw a range of ethnicity-specific
configurations. 10 The document mandated the use of a non-specified “native
language” for procedural purposes, including the organization of education
in schools. Moreover, it allowed the use of the national tongue or any other
language of the USSR without any restrictions. 11 Nagorno Karabakh was to
be represented in all republican organs, according to the principle of
proportional representation. These arrangements were made as a follow up to
the Azerbaijani Communist Party Committee’s request “to form, as part of
the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, an autonomous Armenian region
in Karabakh with Khankend as its centre” 12 [emphasis added]. Additionally,
Articles 7 and 8 of the law on NKAO guaranteed the economic, political,
cultural and social equality of all citizens regardless of their background.
Scholarly work on institutional and territorial autonomy contends with
the implications of such solutions as either secession inducing or secession
preventing. 13 Erk and Anderson bring up a vast amount of literature that
argues for the efficiency of federalism in keeping states together, thanks to
the democratic governance, “skilful division” and negotiated autonomy,
notwithstanding the difficulties that come with it. 14 On the other hand, there
is a bulk of scholarly work criticizing federal solutions as exacerbating
secessionism. In this line of thought, even though autonomy may decrease
the chances of secessionism, in the long run, they create fertile ground for
9
Here, we refer to the “Project of Constitution of the Autonomous Oblast” discussed and
adopted at the session of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party on 3 July
1924, as discussed in Volodya Hovsepyan ‘Навязанная “конституция,’ [Imposed
‘Constitution’] Yerkramas, June 30, 2011, http://www.yerkramas.org/article/?id=17420/.
10
Ibid.
11
Shahen Avagyan, Nagorno Karabagh: Legal Aspects, Second Edition, (Yerevan: Tigran
Mets, 2010), 24.
12
Libaridian ed., “Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan finalizing the
incorporation of Karabakh into Azerbaijan”, 37.
13
Jan Erk and Lawrence Anderson, “The Paradox of Federalism: Does Self-Rule
Accommodate
or
Exacerbate Ethnic Divisions?” Regional & Federal Studies 19: 2, (2009): 191 – 202.
14
See N. Bermeo, “The Import of Institutions”, Journal of Democracy, Vol.13, No.2, (2002):
96–110.; D. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1985).; T.R. Gurr, Peoples versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New Century,
(Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000).
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