Turkey denounces polls in Nagorno Karabakh

Agence France Presse — English
June 17, 2005 Friday 3:39 PM GMT

ANKARA June 17 — Turkey said Friday that upcoming parliamentary
polls in Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway enclave claimed both by its
close ally Azerbaijan and its arch-foe Armenia, were illegitimate
and contrary to international peace efforts in the region.

“Turkey believes that such unilateral initiatives… will not help
efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem
and considers those elections as illegitimate,” foreign ministry
spokesman Namik Tan said in a statement.

Nagorny Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians and effectively
controlled by Armenia, declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991,
sparking a conflict that, according to differing estimates, claimed
between 25,000 and 30,000 lives and displaced up to a million people.

The elections are being held in the face of opposition from Azerbaijan,
which still claims sovereignty over the territory, but was beaten
back by Armenian forces in the 1988-1994 war.

Armenia is the only country to recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an
independent state.

Turkey is one of Azerbaijan’s staunchest allies, with which it also
has close ethnic bonds.

It has refused to establish formal diplomatic ties with Armenia out
of solidarity with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict but
also because of Armenia’s camaipgn to have the World War I massacres
of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire internationally recognized
as genocide.