The will of government is the will of the group. After Egypt had their revolution the new government still had to pay the debts of the old dictator because they old dictator was recognised to be able to make contracts in the name of the nation. How a dictator comes to power isn’t that important for determining whether he’s accepted as representing a group.
You seem to be saying it’s OK for there to be military dictators as long as sub-groups of the country can secede. But no military dictator ever lets anyone secede. I am confused by your position.
The democratically elected government of Crimea went through separating on their own.
The government of Crimea was not democratically elected; it was put in place by the occupying Russian army who didn’t leave the locals much freedom to vote.
Russia claimed that it acted according to the new principle of “responsibility to protect (R2P)” which means that it’s okay to use military to prevent violence against a minority. Without the Russian soliders Kiev likely would have used violence to stop the Crimean government from holding a referendum.
Preventing a referendum hardly rises to the level of violence that should justify an invasion. Is holding a referendum a legally assured right?
Kiev also didn’t go through the impeachment process to remove the status of the old president so it’s not clear why a dejure president shouldn’t be allowed to ask an outside country for military assistance.
Russia also argues that without Western interference the protest movement wouldn’t have managed to make the president flee Kiev.
That seems true.
YOu can’t immigrate and then claim that you then should get the land into with you immigrated.
By that logic, nobody except Native Americans should have any land rights in the USA. In practice nobody follows that rule after a successful conquest. Making exceptions like those for Native Americans is done on a guilt / recompense basis, but it’s not a general legal principle because you could never get it to apply outside a very few minor cases.
You seem to be saying it’s OK for there to be military dictators as long as sub-groups of the country can secede. But no military dictator ever lets anyone secede. I am confused by your position.
The government of Crimea was not democratically elected; it was put in place by the occupying Russian army who didn’t leave the locals much freedom to vote.
Preventing a referendum hardly rises to the level of violence that should justify an invasion. Is holding a referendum a legally assured right?
That seems true.
By that logic, nobody except Native Americans should have any land rights in the USA. In practice nobody follows that rule after a successful conquest. Making exceptions like those for Native Americans is done on a guilt / recompense basis, but it’s not a general legal principle because you could never get it to apply outside a very few minor cases.