ARMENIAN LAWMAKERS PRAISE KARABAKH REFERENDUM
Armenpress
Dec 12 2006
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS: A group of Armenian parliament
members who traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh to watch a constitutional
referendum there last Sunday said today in Yerevan the referendum
was fair, just and transparent.
A parliament member Samvel Nikoyan from the Republican Party, said it
was a move in the right direction. "It marks a new democratic phase
in Nagorno-Karabakh’s drive to build a democratic state," he told.
Another parliament member Shavarsh Kocharian described the referendum
as ‘an event of key significance that will have impact on all future
developments." He argued that the referendum will spoil Azerbaijani
efforts to portray the conflict as a territorial dispute with Armenia.
Asked to comment on the negative international reaction to the
referendum, after the EU and the Council of Europe said they would
not recognize it as having legal validity, Shavarsh Kocharian
blamed the international organizations for recognizing Azerbaijan’s
constitution which he said was ‘a disgrace, a constitution becoming
of a dictatorship regime."