ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 20, 2005 Monday
Armenia hails Karabakh poll, Azerbaijan says it was illegitimate
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
Armenia hails the results of another election in Nagorno-Karabakh,
its foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian has said.
“The people of Nagorno-Karabakh have once again expressed their
political will to act on their own to form a government capable of
assuming the responsibility for the future of Karabakh and its
people, Oskanian told a news conference in Yerevan.
He believes that “the authorities elected in a democratic way
contribute to a peace, comprehensive settlement of the Karabakh
problem and to the solution of internal social problems.”
In the meantime, Azerbaijan argues that as long as the conflict
remains unsettled, the election in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be seen as
either legitimate or democratic, Itar-Tass correspondents in Baku
report.
“Elections or referenda in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be regarded as
democratic, because one-third of the region’s population (the
Azerbaijani community – Itar-Tass) have been forced out of their
places of permanent residence,” Azerbaijani special presidential
envoy at the Karabakh settlement talks, Araz Azimov said at a news
briefing on Monday.
He recalled that the Azerbaijani foreign ministry last week issued a
special statement “expressing new ideas and addressed to the future.”
The message central to the statement is that Azerbaijanis and
Armenians must find a way of living in Nagorno-Karabakh together in
the spirit of cooperation.
“Only in this situation it will be possible to form legitimate bodies
of power of any level,” Azimov said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress