Separatism Boomerang: Why Kosovo Can But The Caucasus Cannot?

Recently, at the very beginning of April 2016, the armed conflict between Armenian and Azerbaijani militaries was shortly renewed over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh - an autonomous province within Azerbaijan but in fact under direct military control by Armenia. This event once again opened the question of the legitimacy of similar self-proclaimed independence cases around the world and international (non)recognition of such de facto quasi- and client-states (Transnistria, North Cyprus, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, West Sahara, South Sudan, East Timor?). However, from the European perspective, three cases from the Caucasus (Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia) have to be firstly analysed in comparison with the Balkan case of Kosovo.

A Domino effect

After February 2008 when Kosovo Albanian-dominated parliament proclaimed Kosovo independence (without...