Should a part of a country have the right to be independent? (also read OP)

[Mr Khan]

Kasz216 said:

the2real4mafol said:
If a majority of people in a particular region want independence from any country then shall be. The Crimean people overwhelmingly voted to join Russia and yet the west sanctions them, WTF?

It's weird really since a country is sort of a fictional entity and only exists to divide different groups up. Just look at how the borders in Europe have changed in the last 1000 years, it's the same land at the end of it. Just divided differently.

Are you actually sure of that?

More people voted to join Crimea then people have voted for Saddam Hussein in the past.

A joining with russia was expected to win, but not anywhere near that sort of margin, and the only observers were specifically handpicked crimean ones.

 

The pot was almost definitly somehwat cooked.

 

Additionally, what about the Ethnic tartars and others in the area who are afraid of ethnic cleansing and other mistreatement from the Russians lik they suffered in the past?

 

Territories should be allowed to cede from one nation to another even if there is a likelyhood that minority groups will be abused?

 

And the final kicker....

 

a Majority of Palestinians in East Jersualem would rather be part of Israel then Palestine.  Should East Jersualem become the undivided captial of Israel?

The wonky numbers in Crimea are at least partially explicable in that the Crimeans allowed Russian citizen-residents to vote, so people who might not even have been registered when it was still Ukrainian, leading to turnout beyond possible levels.

Though i agree it was probably forged, i also think that the majority of Crimean permanent residents (combining Russian and Ukrainian citizens living there) did want to join Russia.