KARABAKH CONSTITUTION ADOPTED IN REFERENDUM
By Karine Kalantarian in Stepanakert and Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech rep
Dec 11 2006

Nagorno-Karabakh’s first-ever constitution declaring the
Armenian-populated territory an independent state was overwhelmingly
approved by voters in a weekend referendum criticized by the
international community, officials in Stepanakert said on Monday.

According to preliminary results of the vote released by the local
Central Election Commission, almost 99 percent of over residents who
went to the polls on Sunday voted for the constitution drafted by the
ethnic Armenian leadership of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR). The CEC put the voter turnout at 87 percent.

To pass, the basic law needed the backing of at least one third of
the region’s 90,000 eligible voters. The authorities in Stepanakert
said its passage reaffirmed Karabakh’s de facto secession from Soviet
Azerbaijan in the late 1980s.

"I am confident that the adopted document will reinforce
Nagorno-Karabakh statehood and deepen democratization processes going
on here," Arkady Ghukasian, the NKR president, told reporters in the
Karabakh capital.

The Karabakh leadership went ahead with the vote despite the ongoing
peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan on an internationally backed
peace deal that would delay agreement on the disputed region’s status
until the final stage of the peace process. Ghukasian has repeatedly
voiced misgivings about the proposed formula.

In Yerevan, President Robert Kocharian was quick to welcome the
referendum outcome, saying that the Karabakh Armenians "reaffirmed
their resolve to live in freedom." "This referendum, which met
the highest democratic standards, was another milestone in the
establishment of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence," Kocharian said in
a congratulatory message sent to Stepanakert.

Predictably, Azerbaijan condemned the holding of the vote. "That
referendum is a regular farce," Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
was quoted by Day.az as saying.

The condemnation was echoed by the governments of Georgia, Moldova
and Ukraine last week. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of
the four ex-Soviet states making up the GUAM grouping said the vote
will undermine international efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

Armenia angrily rejected the criticism, with Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian accusing Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine of "meddling into
an issue which does not concern them." He said the NKR has built a
"lawful, well-regulated internal governance system" and therefore
has a legitimate right for a basic law.

The Azerbaijani position on the issue was also effectively backed
by the European Union and the Council of Europe. "The EU recalls
that it does not recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. It
recognizes neither the ‘referendum’ nor its outcome," the 25-nation
bloc said in a statement.

"This Sunday’s vote organized by the ‘de facto’ authorities of
Nagorno-Karabakh cannot have any legal validity," Terry Davis,
secretary general of the Council of Europe, said separately from
Strasbourg. "It will not be recognized by the international community
and is therefore of no consequence."

Davis went on to play down the Karabakh Armenians’ role in the peace
process, saying that the "main responsibility for the settlement is
with the political leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan."

French, Russian and U.S. mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group
also dismissed the ballot. "Conducting such a referendum now, thus
preempting the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh, rather than
forging a compromise is particularly unhelpful at a moment when the
OSCE Minsk Group-mediated negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan
appear to be on a constructive path," read a joint statement issued
by them.

The mediators stressed at the same time that the Karabakh vote "will
have no negative effect on emerging prospects for an agreement between
the sides on basic principles for the settlement of the conflict."