1. Arguments of Armenia
2. Arguments of Azerbaijan
2.1. Nagorny Karabakh in the context of consideration of a question regarding the admission of Azerbaijan and Armenia to the League of Nations
2.2. Nagorny Karabakh within the Azerbaijan SSR
2.3. State succession in respect of territory and boundaries in the context of restoration of the state independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Conclusion

1. Arguments of Armenia
In order to justify the territorial claims of Armenia towards Azerbaijan, the officials of the former frequently raise a proposition, according to which Nagorny Karabakh has never been within the jurisdiction of independent Azerbaijan. The following arguments underlie this assertion:

• Firstly, in the period when independent Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union Karabakh had not been within its jurisdiction, the evidence of which was the decision of the League of Nations that refused to recognize Azerbaijan because of its territorial claims to the Armenian populated Eastern Caucasus, including in particular Nagorny Karabakh, as well as the lack of efficient state control over its supposed territory and inability to ground the legitimacy of the frontiers of this territory.
• Secondly, the legal cause for secession of Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan in the process of disintegration of the USSR in 1991 and the establishment of the "Republic of Nagorny Karabakh". Thereby the special emphasis is placed on the provisions of the Law of the USSR "On the Procedures for Resolving Questions Related to the Secession of Union Republics from the USSR" of 3 April 1990, according to which in case of realization by the Union republic of the secession procedure provided for in this Law autonomous entities would acquire a right to decide independently the question of staying in the USSR or in the seceding republic, as well as to raise the question of their own state-legal status.
• Thirdly, refusal by Azerbaijan to regard itself as a successor state to the USSR, and thus the lack of any reason to have pretensions to the frontiers of that period(2).

2. Arguments of Azerbaijan
2.1. Nagorny Karabakh in the context of consideration of a question regarding the
admission of Azerbaijan and Armenia to the League of Nations

• Following the entry of the British forces into Baku in 1918, general V.Thomson, who represented the Allied Powers, recognized Nagorny Karabakh together with the neighboring Zangezur uyezd under the administration of Azerbaijan. He confirmed the appointment by the Government of Azerbaijan of Khosrov Sultanov as a Governor of the Karabakh General-Governorship, of which these two regions were part. In 1919 the Armenian Assembly of Nagorny Karabakh recognized officially the authority of Azerbaijan.(3)
• In 1918-1920 the Republic of Azerbaijan had diplomatic relations with a number of states. Agreements on the principles of mutual relations were signed with some of them; sixteen states established their missions in Baku.
• On 12 January 1920 at the Paris Peace Conference the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers de-facto recognized the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
• The head of the Azerbaijani Delegation at the Conference by a letter of 1 November 1920 requested the Secretary-General of the League of Nations to submit to the Assembly of the League an application for the admission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Organization.
• The Secretary-General pointed out in his Memorandum of 24 November 1920 that the mandate of the Azerbaijani Delegation attending at the Paris Peace Conference derived from the Government which had been in power at Baku until April 1920. Thus, the attention in the Memorandum is distinctly paid to the fact that at the time of submission by the Azerbaijani Delegation of the application (1 November 1920) and the publication date of the Memorandum (24 November 1920) the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which issued the credentials to the Delegation, was not actually in power since April 1920. It was further noted in the Memorandum that this Government did not exercise the authority over the whole territory of the country.(4)
• In this context, the most important part of the mentioned Memorandum of the Secretary-General of the League of Nations relates to "Juristic observations", which reminds of the conditions governing the admission of new Members to the Organization contained in Article 1 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, including the requirement to be a fully self-governing state.(5)
• The relevant documents of the League of Nations completely disprove the statements of the Armenian side claiming that the League of Nations did not admit Azerbaijan because of its alleged territorial claims to the so-called Armenian-populated territories and the refusal to recognize the control of Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh. It is obvious actually that the state, considerable part of the territory of which was occupied by the time of consideration of its application in the League of Nations, and yet the Government that submitted this application was overthrown, could not be regarded as fully self-governing in terms of Article 1 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Thus, these were just those conditions that prevented Azerbaijan from being admitted to the League of Nations.
• At the same time, the League of Nations did not consider Armenia itself as a state and proceeded from the fact that this entity had no clear and recognized borders, neither status nor constitution, and its Government was unstable. As a result, the admission of Armenia to the League of Nations was voted down on 16 December 1920.(6)

2.2. Nagorny Karabakh within the Azerbaijan SSR

• Along with the above-mentioned facts on the recognition by the Allied Powers of the authority of Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh, a proposition that Karabakh was not under the jurisdiction of independent Azerbaijan when it became part of the Soviet Union refuted also by the decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which owing to the territorial claims of Armenia did take up the problem several times and, at the meeting held on 5 July 1921, decided to retain Nagorny Karabakh within the Azerbaijan SSR. At the same time, the Azerbaijan SSR was recommended to confer Nagorny Karabakh a broader autonomy.(7)
• On 13 October 1921 the Treaty of Friendship between the Armenia SSR, Azerbaijan SSR and Georgia SSR, on the one hand, and Turkey, on the other, was concluded in Kars with the participation of the RSFSR. In Article 5 of the Treaty the Governments of Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan expressed their consent that "the Nakhichevan oblast