the claim that regions cannot secede from countries is extremely dangerous to the democratic order. never mind the fact that it's bullshit, that these same people that argue that catalonia or donbas or somaliland cannot secede no matter what will also argue that ukraine or scotland or kosovo or taiwan can secede unilaterally. they'll say something about circumstances, but it just demonstrates they're not to be taken seriously and that they support secession when it aligns with their politics and self-interest and oppose it when it doesn't. there's no principle of international law at play.
however, if there was a principle of international law at play, it would be ass backwards.
the particular argument they use - that an area cannot secede unilaterally without permission of the unitary state - is particularly egregious, as it reduces to a complete rejection of democracy and a total denial of self-determination. it is imperative that democratic actors in democratic societies aggressively seek to completely reverse this position. self-determination means that a region has no requirement to seek permission to secede from a country, so long as that secession has democratic legitimacy. secessionist decisions belong solely to the geopolitical entity in secession; the region being seceded from has no rights in the matter and no say as to the outcome. wars to prevent democratic secession via invasion, occupation or other types of force must be seen as illegal and undemocratic. conversely, intervention on the side of democracy to help a region secede is consistent with a rule of law and means standing in solidarity with self-determination, which is a human right.
it is easy enough to understand why dictatorships in the middle east would reject democracy and self-determination but harder to understand the reason that governments in european capitals are taking such a completely ass backwards position, even if it's complete bullshit, until you remember that history was declared over 35 years ago and the idiots in the european ruling classes actually believe that. the map is forever frozen, because history has stopped. attempts to alter the map mean kickstarting history back up, which must be prevented at all costs. the last thing the european elite wants is a return to history!
that is obviously utterly retarded, but it is clear that these people need to be told that, and that their biases and beliefs need to be aggressively and forcefully challenged as empirically wrong. history is not over. wars still happen. borders still change. there will be revolutions and changes in government and changes in the type of government. we have migration changing societies. religions collapse and evolve. science advances. language changes. it was democritus that successfully argued against parmenides, but the idiots sided with aristotle instead, and it triggered us into a dark age when they did. the great victory of europe was in casting aristotle aside and elevating democritus over parmenides. the irony is that parmenides would approve of us repeating our own mistakes and tell us we have no choice but to do so, as we are stuck in this endless sisyphean futility of reality and the empty and meaningless existence that follows from it, and we cannot change, and never will.
choose democritus over parmenides.
it's imperative.
we all lose if you don't.