AZERI POLL SHOWS MOST RESPONDENTS WANT NO COMPROMISE ON KARABAKH

Day.az website, Baku
13 Mar 07

13 March: Political expert Rasim Musabayov has presented the results
of an opinion poll at a news conference.

The poll was conducted among 1,000 respondents in 15 districts and
12 towns of Azerbaijan in December 2006.

According to the results of the poll, 59.4 per cent of the respondents
do not accept any compromises during the resolution of the Karabakh
issue. Therefore, the government needs to pay more attention to
this issue.

According to the results of the poll, only 11.5 per cent of the
respondents spoke in favour of a cultural autonomy and a local
government [status] being granted to Nagornyy Karabakh, 9.5 per cent
– an autonomy similar to the one of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic
[Azerbaijan’s exclave].

A total of 11.1 per cent spoke in favour of the status of Nagornyy
Karabakh being determined by holding a referendum provided that
Azerbaijani IDPs should return to their native territories.

Asked about prospects for the negotiations on the settlement of the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem, 46.7 per cent stressed that the situation of
"no peace and no war" will continue to last.

A total of 38.4 per cent of the respondents replied that there will
be changes towards a peaceful resolution of the problem, while 12.7
per cent believe that hostilities will resume.

One of the 37 questions put to the respondents during the poll was
about which states they considered to be friendly towards Azerbaijan
and which they considered to be hostile.

A total of 84.9 of the respondents consider Turkey to be friendly
to Azerbaijan, 17.8 per cent – Russia, 9.3 per cent – Georgia, 8 per
cent – Ukraine, and 5.9 per cent – the USA.

A total of 89 per cent of the respondents consider Armenia to be
Azerbaijan’s enemy, 13.1 per cent – Russia, 10.8 per cent – France,
and 9.7 per cent – Iran.