VOTERS IN DISPUTED NAGORNO-KARABAKH OVERWHELMINGLY BACK CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM
By Avet Demourian, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
December 11, 2006 Monday

Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh overwhelmingly supported a draft
constitution that describes the disputed territory claimed by
Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians as a "sovereign,
democratic" state, officials said Monday.

Sergei Nasibyan, chairman of the regional election commission, said
preliminary results indicated more than 98 percent of the 77,000
voters casting ballots backed the proposed constitution. The region
has more than 90,000 eligible voters.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan that has been under
the control of Armenian and ethnic-Armenian forces since a 1994
cease-fire. A six-year separatist conflict killed about 30,000 people
and drove about 1 million from their homes, including many of the
region’s ethnic Azeris.

The region’s final status remains unresolved, and years of talks
under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe have brought few visible results.

Armenia has close ties to Nagorno-Karabakh’s government and provides
substantial support to the region, but has stopped short of recognizing
it as independent.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian on Monday congratulated
Nagorno-Karabakh’s government and people on the referendum, saying it
"consolidated democratic principles" and "added a cornerstone to the
development of the Nagorno-Karabakh statehood."

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister on Monday warned that the vote would have
a negative influence on internationally mediated efforts to resolve
the region’s status. Elmar Mammadyarov said any such vote would have
to include Azeri refugees who fled Nagorno-Karabakh to be valid.

"I will say once again that this unnecessary act does not allow the
achievement of peace; on the contrary, it creates complications,"
he said in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.

The European Union said it would not recognize the referendum, saying
that it pre-empts the outcome of negotiations and "did not contribute
to constructive efforts at peaceful conflict resolution."

The so-called Minsk group of the OSCE dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict criticized the vote, saying it wasn’t helping a negotiated
settlement.

"Conducting such a referendum now, thus pre-empting 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," it said in a statement Monday.