According to the deputy State Secretary of the US and the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Mathew Bryza in the international law the provision of territorial integrity is a priority. Yesterday at the press conference in Washington DC to one of the questions of the journalists as whether the independence of Kosovo is not a prerequisite for the recent events in Georgia Bryza responded, “Of course we know that in the government of Russia there are people, who wanted that Kosovo becomes a prerequisite for the independence of Abkhasia and South Ossetia. Legally speaking there are absolutely no grounds for that.” “The principle of territorial integrity in the international law and I am saying this to my Armenian friends very carefully, is a priority to us when we start to resolve a conflict. This is just a fact of international right. Territorial integrity is a primary principle of the international law,” stated Bryza and added, “in cases of certain conflicts we say that the conflicting sides should decide what kind of compromises they are going to accept of course relying on the right of the peoples to choose their national identity. We are trying to do the same in the case of Karabakh. We are trying to reach political compromise through negotiations.” As of Kosovo, Bryza believes that another principle of international law is being applied. The principle is, “if there is a serious humanitarian crisis and the principle of territorial integrity is put into doubt, the international community offers other mechanisms of resolution.” “That is what’s happening in Kosovo and that is what brought us to resolution 1244 of the Security Council, which enabled us to jointly work with the international community (former president of Finland Marti Ahstisaari) and develop a scheme of actions. These two are totally different circumstances. And we don’t think that Kosovo should serve as a prerequisite for other conflicts. It is an exception,” states Bryza.
