OWING TO LAST ELECTIONS OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT BODIES ARTSAKH OBTAINS TRUMP
CARD IN NEGOTIATION PROCESS, NEW STEPANAKERT MAYOR ASSURES

STEPANAKERT, August 31 (Noyan Tapan). “The elections of local
self-government bodies held in August in NKR became one more step
on the way of construction of democracy and civil society in the
country,” Eduard Aghabekian, the new Stepanakert Mayor, mentioned
in his interview to Noyan Tapan. Owing to this political event,
Aghabekian emphasized, “we obtained a trump card in the negotiation
process.” On the background of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia,
Ossetia, Adzharia and a number of other countries Stepanakert is the
only capital where the post of a community head is elective, this is
a fact that “proves the firmness of the political will of our people
and activization of democratic processes in Karabakh.” Meanwhile the
Mayor expressed anxiety in connection with the fact that insufficient
degree of development of the institute of council of elders, which
is a counterbalance to the community head, hampers establishment
of local self-government bodies in Artsakh. In his affirmation, the
council of elders shouldn’t become the adjunct of the community head,
which may threaten to development of democracy.