US AMBASSADOR REFUTES INFORMATION THAT OFFICIAL OBSERVERS FROM THE USA WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE SO-CALLED ‘PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS’ IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH (VIDEO)
Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
July 19 2007
Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend K.Ramazanova / The U.S. Ambassador
to Azerbaijan, Anne E. Derse, refutes the information that official
observers from the USA will participate in so-called ‘presidential
elections’ in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by
Armenia. "We do not recognize the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh republic"
and therefore, we do not recognize elections in Nagorno-Karabkh,"
the Ambassador said on 19 July in Baku.
Currently media sources spread information that 275 polling stations
are functioning in Nagorno-Karabakh and one more has been opened in
Yerevan, where a permanent representation of the separatist regime
functions. The elections will be observed by observers from Russia,
USA, Armenia and other unrecognized republics ‘Abkhazia, South Osetia
and Pridnestrov’.
The Head of the Office of Public Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in
Azerbaijan, Jonathan Henick, does not exclude the participation of
Armenians as observers in the election, but he said that they are
not official US representatives.
On 19 July the so-called ‘presidential elections’ is taking place in
Nagorno-Karabakh. The first ‘president’ of the self-declared republic
in 1994 was Robert Kocharyan, current President of Armenia. In 1997
Kocharyan was replaced by Arkadi Kukasyan who held this position as
a result of the 2002 elections.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus appeared in
1988 due to territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia
has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including Nagorno-Karabakh
region and seven Districts of the country surrounding it. Since
1992 to the present time, these territories have been under the
occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia
signed a cease-fire agreement at which time the active hostilities
ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA)
is holding peaceful negotiations.