An illegal Republic: the formation and continuity of the collective legal identity of Karabakh Armenians

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the formation and continuity of the legal identity of Karabakh Armenians as a group, focusing on the challenges they faced after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Trapped between two newly independent states, Karabakh Armenians managed to establish their own legal identity while lacking a connection to statehood or even external recognition of their state-like entity. The study combines a descriptive qualitative approach with doctrinal legal analysis, considering the external and internal dimensions of collective legal identity and the legal system constructed by the group. Unlike other cases such as, for example, Taiwan and Macau, Karabakh Armenians faced hostile conditions and challenges to their identity from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the international community. The article argues that their legal identity should be viewed from the perspective of access to rights rather than the legality of their self-constructed (illegal) entity. Although their external legal identity is contested, the internal legal identity maintains continuity and structures. However, the vulnerability of such constructed legal identities becomes apparent due to challenges to the external identity of Karabakh Armenians, risking the group’s ability to maintain its collective legal identity in case of reintegration into Azerbaijan.