Voters go to polls in disputed Nagorno Karabakh enclave

Agence France Presse — English
June 19, 2005 Sunday 3:49 PM GMT

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan June 19 — Voters cast their ballots Sunday
in parliamentary polls in the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno
Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, amid
strong opposition from Azeri authorities.

Seven parties and 185 candidates were vying for places in Nagorno
Karabakh’s fourth parliament, with two thirds of the parliament’s 33
seats to be elected directly and one third under a proportional system.

No major violations had been reported by the time polling stations
closed at 8:00 pm (1500 GMT) with preliminary results expected
Monday morning.

Voting was brisk, with lines forming outside polling stations and
officials reporting turnout at 60.5 percent by 5:00 pm, exceeding
the 25 percent minimum needed for the vote to be declared legitimate.

The central market in Stepanakert, the enclave’s main city, was
unusually empty as traders deserted their stalls to vote.

“Everyone’s gone to vote,” said one trader, gleeful at her temporary
monopoly.

Nagorno Karabakh’s authorities have said the vote is a chance to
prove to the world the territory’s independence.

“I voted for stability, independence and prosperity,” Nagorno
Karabakh’s leader, Arkady Gukasyan, said after casting his ballot.

It was essential, Gukasyan said earlier, that the vote meet European
standards in order to avoid harming Nagorno Karabakh’s image and
“the process of peaceful settlement with Azerbaijan”.

But Azerbaijan, which claims the territory, said any vote in the
region would remain illegal until hundreds of thousands of Azeris
banished from Nagorno Karabakh and seven surrounding regions were
allowed to return.

“Armenia is zealous to legalize the occupation… elections and
referendums on the occupied territories must be conducted only after
the territory’s restoration to Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijan’s election
commission said in a written statement on Saturday.

Nagorno Karabakh is widely seen as propped up by Armenia, which fought
a war with Azerbaijan over the territory in 1993 and 1994 that left
an estimated 25,000 people dead and forced a million people from
their homes, three quarters of them Azeri.

On Friday, Turkey, long at odds with Armenia and a staunch supporter
of Azerbaijan, joined its ally in criticizing the poll.

“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.

No foreign governments have sent observer missions, reflecting the
territory’s unresolved status.

But as voting got under way Sunday, monitors from non-governmental
organizations reported a number of minor violations.

Supporters of Araig Horutyunyan, a candidate closely linked to Nagorno
Karabakh’s leader, “were actively proselytizing” near polling stations,
said Antranig Kasabaryan, local representative of the Tufenkyan
foundation, a New York-based aid group.

Earlier, Gukasyan had rounded on opposition parties, accusing them of
“insinuations” and “libel” after they accused senior Karabakh officials
of abusing their positions in order to win support.

“False rumors were circulated that the authorities sanctioned pressure
on the electorate, threatened people… this didn’t and couldn’t
happen,” Gukasyan said.

The unrecognized Nagorno Karabakh Republic has a population of
145,000. It is spread over eight regions of Azerbaijan including
Karabakh itself and comprises 14 percent of Azerbaijan’s overall
territory.

The parliament is elected for a five-year term.