Following the logic of Russia's actions in Crimea and the way that country manipulates on the principle of 'the people's right to self-determination,' there is no reason to deny the right of Chechnya, Bashkortostan, Komi and Tatarstan to self-determination. The statement came from Vladimir Kupriy, the Head of the Working Group, Eastern Partnership Ukrainian National Platform, in response to ArmInfo's question as to whether Crimea's independence from Ukraine will have an effect of domino and lay a mine under Russia.
"The term 'people of Crimea' is absolutely unjustified. There is only multi-ethnic population of Crimea. It is inexpedient speaking of Crimea's self-determination. The situation we have now resembles the situation with Sudetenland and we must speak of Crimea's annexation. Maybe, we see such a sophisticated method of annexation for the first time, but it happens with use of the known instruments of the Nazi Germany," the expert said.
Kupriy is not sure that the Kremlin's aspirations will speed up Ukraine's admission to the EU, but it is quite possible that Ukraine will have a status of the official candidate by 2020 in case of favorable domestic political conditions. Kupriy thinks Ukraine's integrity is endangered. If the public and he authorities find a way to meet this challenge, Ukraine will get new opportunities of European integration. "More people will now support European integration. However, such aspirations are mostly connected with the desire for a better life," he said.
Joint online press conference of experts from various countries for Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian mass media on the relevant problems are organized within the project "Expansion of knowledge of Armenians and Azerbaijanis about each other and confidence building through first-hand information". The project of the "Region" Research Center (Armenia) and Peace and Democracy Institute (Azerbaijan) is supported by the British Embassies in Armenia and Azerbaijan.