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Comment by yywwbbn | Hacker News Reader

This is an nonsensical comparison. As absurd as Putins claim is historically it has more ground to stand on , at least historically both Russia and Ukraine are (kind of) successors to the original Rus state centered around Kiev. Whereas Azerbaijan’s claim is basically based on the fact that they invaded the region and murdered or drove off the Armenians living there.

Obviously what happened hundreds of years ago should be irrelevant since the people currently living there had nothing to do with it. But also I don’t think we should deny the right of self determination to the people living there just because Stalin drew some line on a map close to century ago.

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Unfortunately when more than one group of people claim rights over a territory the only fair outcome is the one that comes after one of the groups compels the others to comply, usually though killing citizens capable to fight. The rights of the current occupants is always expected to be respected, i.e. when Armenia occupies part of Azerbaijan and vice versa it is expected that the locals keep their belongings. When this is not respected, we talk about war crimes and atrocities.

In the case of Armenia vs Azerbaijan, this time around the Azerbaijan came victorious. On the previous war it was the Armenia.

Anyway, I agree that people should have a right for self determination but unfortunately in the age of countries they will need to fight and win. Unfortunately, with the war technology we have this means huge tragedies.

Oh and the comparison with Ukraine is not nonsensical at all, the regions under Russian invasion are Russian-dominated places that declared independence from Ukraine almost a decade ago. The only new development is that those people finally have a state actor on their side. Why wouldn't you say that the Russians in Ukraine have the exact same self determination rights as the Armenians in Azerbaijan?

So Crimea had every right to declare independence from Ukraine?

Except, it didn't. The 'referendum' was a farce.

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