The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) unilaterally declared its independence from Azerbaijan on 6 January 1992, caused by an unsolved ethnic conflict. During the following civil war the Armenians liberated the areas of their settlements. Since May 1994 there is a cease-fire. All negotiations of the Minsk group about the future status of NKR didn't solve this problem yet. In this way, Mountainous (Nagorno) Karabakh now is a republic ruled by its own government independently in fact. However, it is not recognized as independent under international law. So it cannot be a member of UNO. Therefore also the membership of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) is blocked for NKR.

 Azerbaijan complains about ”illegal” stamps 

After NKR started to issue own postage stamps on 11 June 1993, the government of Azerbaijan instructed the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) to publish a circular about those ”illegal” stamps what happend on 20 December 1993. In that circular No 426 Azerbaijan protested against «the circulation of illegal stamps issued by the occupying power of Armenia in the name of the so-called "Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh"». Now this accusation was renewed in circular No 263 of 30 August 2004. Azerbaijan «called on the postal administrations of all UPU member countries not to accept for processing items with the illegal stamps mentioned above and to return them to origin». On 28 February 2005 Azerbaijan reiterated its protest in a more forceful way. Please read mycomments in this matter.

 Universal Postal Union (UPU) 

The International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union is publishing circulars on the request of postal administrations or governments to denounce illegal ”stamps” in order to prevent collectors from harmful items. But other postal administrations don't (and cannot) care about that.
In reply to corresponding enquiries the Deutsche Post AG (German post) explained that mail from abroad will be passed on or delivered principally, provided that the mail was handed over by an UPU member postal administration. It is impossible to check all mail from abroad for illegal or insufficient frankatures! Therefore, always that postal administration is responsible for the entry of correct mail only into the mail stream which accepted the mail from the costumer originally. And always that postal administration which handed over the mail to another postal administration will be charged for the further processings. In this way, it is logical that not only the Deutsche Post didn't reject any mail from NKR by now – in spite of ”illegal” stamps. Such mail also was delivered without any problem to addressees in the USA, Great Britain, France, Spain, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Turkey...

For the moment UPU does not respond to enquiries about this subject. Apparently, UPU tries to avoid this problem tacitly. On the one hand it's quite understandable because the UPU is simply not responsible for non-member's issues. On the other hand the UPU is also not in charge of non-member's stamp issue policy. However, at present UPU does influence it indirectly by trying to force potential stamp producers not to print ”illegal stamps” – what basically is very praiseworthy. Precisely for that it is very important to explain and fix accurately what ”illegal stamps” are. In the case of separatist stamp issues one must consider the real postal situation there. By now UPU does not make a distinction between illegal ”stamps” and ”illegal” stamps. However, this is not correct, I think.

 Philatelic community 

In contrast to illegal ”stamps” produced by any agency without a corresponding contract with the affected postal administration, ”illegal” stamps issued by separatist governments are real postage stamps! First-mentioned items so represent a philatelic problem, but last-mentioned items are a political one. It seems to be appropriate to assess the questionable items accordingly to the authenticity of their origin...

• Faked ”stamps” produced by agencies without permission but with the worst of intentions for the philatelic market are no postage stamps at all. Such items are totally worthless for philatelic purposes, because of their lack of the most important feature of real postage stamps: the officially given value for franking the mail...
• Postage stamps issued by separatist administrations in trouble spots are relevant for a philatelist provided they are sold at the post office there for postal purposes. Such items are perfectly genuine and real postage stamps. The dispute about their recognition is rather more a political matter.
  Mountainous Karabakh just as Northern Cyprus does have a neighbouring ally who is recognized under international law. That ally accepts and passes on the mail from the problematic protégé – in spite of ”illegal” frankature. Mostly all complaints are useless. In reality such an ”illegal” frankature would be rejected only if a postal administration felt offended directly.
  Pridnestrovie (PMR) doesn't have a neighbouring ally. Therefore the PMR postage stamps are good for domestic mail only. Nevertheless, these are real postage stamps. Analogously is the case of Abkhazia, possibly also South Ossetia. But there is no proof of real use of own postage stamps there, by now.
• On the other hand, in Chechenia the separatist government under the then president Dudaev gave instructions to print own stamps since May 1992. Because of practical reasons those items remained uncirculated. In spite of the quite independent politics of Chechenia at that time, only Russian stamps were sold and used at the post offices there... So the own ”stamps” of Chechenia never were valid for postal use. Although they were tolerated as additional stickers, sometimes. Envelopes or postcards which seem to show ”normal” postal use of those Chechen stamps are forgeries! But because of the authenticity of their origin and the problem behind those ”stamps” (the conflict between Russia and Chechenia), every philatelist may decide by himself if those officially prepared but never issued items are relevant for his collection.
  Also the government of the autonomous Republic of Tuva (Russian Federation) intented to issue own postage stamps in 1994. After corresponding talks in Moscow ended apparently with an agreement, the Russian authorities stopped the plan when it started to became real. However, in the meantime, the Tuvan government signed a contract with an Austrian agency that produced some stamps for Tuva in 1994 and 1995, accordingly. Those items never became real postage stamps. Only Russian stamps were and are valid for postal use in the Republic of Tuva. To decide about the relevance of those officially produced items is entirely up to the collector...
• Well, there is a big problem for the collector: How to learn about separatist issues if they are genuine? Because also in the name of such entities some swindlers produce faked ”stamps”. Against this problem will be helpful only direct contacts to the respective postal administrations and free access to relevant information about their officially issued postage stamps.

Once more, clearly and concisely: Illegal ”stamps” (private labels) are no postage stamps at all whilst ”illegal” stamps issued by practically independent postal administrations perfectly could be worth to be collected. The UPU should not be misused for political disputes between members.
To avoid any misunderstanding: I'm not an opponent against UPU! The UPU serves fairly for the improvement of worldwide postal connections. We all should reward that, I think. But political problems have to be solved on an appropriate level by the responsible politicians there...