Karabakh foreign minister concerned at European reaction against
Karabakh poll

Arminfo
4 Jul 07

Yerevan, 4 July: It is regrettable that representatives of the Council
of Europe, an organization aimed at protecting and promoting ideals and
principles of pluralistic democracy, human rights and supremacy of law
through integration processes, criticize presidential election in
Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR]. The Karabakh foreign minister,
Grigori Petrosyan, said this commenting on the statement of Chairman of
the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Vuk Jeremic on the
forthcoming Karabakh presidential election.

The NKR foreign minister says that by this way they doubt the
institution of election itself as an important element of democracy,
which is against the status of the Council of Europe. "If the European
bureaucrats do not want to assist democratic processes in NKR, we have
the right to expect from them at least not hinder the strengthening of
democratic institutions in our country," Petrosyan said.

"We deeply believe that democracy is a most important condition for the
settlement of the NKR conflict, as democracy presumes the creation of
mechanisms that allow any conflicts to be resolved exclusively through
peaceful measures. This is what the NKR is striving for. It would be
natural if this strife was shared by representatives of various
European structures," Petrosyan said.

Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Vuk
Jeremic stated lately that the forthcoming election in NKR cannot serve
the settlement of the conflict and make the negotiation process more
difficult.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress