Institution of elections is questioned

04-07-2007 14:55:19 – KarabakhOpen

NKR foreign minister Georgy Petrosyan commented on the statement by the
president of the CoE Committee of Ministers Vuk Jeremic on the upcoming
NKR presidential election.

Mr. Petrosyan, recently the CoE officials have been making critical
statements on the upcoming NKR presidential election. A few days ago
the foreign minister of Serbia, the president of the CoE Committee of
Ministers Vuk Jeremic stated the upcoming election in Karabakh will not
be helpful to the settlement of the conflict and will complicate the
talks. What are your thoughts?

Unfortunately, the representatives of the Council of Europe, who are
believed to promote democratic ideas and principles through
integration, sustain human rights and the rule of law, are condemning
the election. Thereby they question the institution of elections as an
essential component of democracy, which contradicts to the regulations
of the Council of Europe. And if the European officials are not likely
to support the democratic process in NKR, we expect that at least they
will not hinder the establishment of democratic institutions in our
republic. We believe that democracy is a key precondition to the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict because it presupposes the creation
of mechanisms which enable reaching a peace settlement of any conflict.
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic follows this track. It would be natural if
the representatives of different European organizations supported it.