COMMENTS OF NKR FOREIGN MINISTER TO `DE-FACTO’

Azat Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
26 Aug 05

– Mr. Minister, how will you comment the formation of the voting
district by the Central Electoral Commission of the Azerbaijani
Republic for the citizens of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic? – As for
the current agiotage around the formation of voting districts by the
Azerbaijani Central Electoral Commission (CEC) for the population of
territories currently under the sovereignty of the NKR then it is a
serious threat to the possible democratic reforms in AR because this
allows Azerbaijani authorities using at least several hundreds of
thousands virtual voters for their purposes. The same perspective is
evident also in the proposed electronic voting. These steps of the
Azerbaijani CEC indicate that local and international observers will
be deprived of possibilities to effectively supervise the course of
elections in AR. – Doyou consider participation of NKR citizens in
Azerbaijani elections possible? – NKR legislation provides for dual
citizenship and if one day a NKR citizen obtained Azerbaijani
citizenship then the necessity of interstate agreement betweenthe
Nagorno Karabakh Republic and the Azerbaijani Republic would
arise. This agreement will have to regulate such issues as rights and
responsibilitiesof people with dual citizenship including the
realization of their electoral rights. This is international
practice. For such agreement to be signed, anumber of issues have to
be solved in advance. First of all, it is the recognition of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s sovereignty by the Azerbaijani Republic.
Without this further steps will be impossible. In the second place
Azerbaijani legislation must provide for the right to dual citizenship
and if necessary corresponding changes have to be introduced. In the
aftermath of these steps it will be possible to speak about signing an
interstate agreement on persons with dual or more citizenship. However,
it seems quite problematic that AR will be able to carry out
corresponding actions before the coming parliamentary elections,
though everything depends exclusively on the political will of
Azerbaijani leaders. Any positive steps in this direction will be
welcome.

`DE-FACTO’.
26-08-2005

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress