@desafinado we can try to change the behavior of states for the better. (supporting secessionism among minorities usually does the opposite.) relatedly, within territories, subgroups can withhold legitimacy, from civil disobedience to civil war, to try to win some accommodation with other groups that isn't persecution. but persecution is almost always in some sense mutual. power imbalance does not make the weaker party uniquely righteous. there's no such thing as "liberation", only settlement.

@desafinado i don't decree that territories must remain melded. but i do decree that subdivisions of territories must be peaceful and mutually agreed, or at least that third parties should not be in the business of supporting any other kind of subdivision. the lines are fictions. ultimately we live together. the question is, what kinds of institutions and process result in our best though deeply imperfectly living together?

@desafinado i'd submit that attempting by force to draw lines to match regional-majority-perceived nations has a track record. it is bloodbaths in the redrawings, new oppressions by the formerly oppressed, a long tail of instability between the new states. if borders are conditional as a matter of principle, they are always conditional and subject to revision. everywhere always has minorities, often with colorable claims to oppression in various degrees. segregation by violence doesn't end this.