SAAKYAN TAKES VOTE IN KARABAKH

The Moscow Times, Russia
Reuters
July 23 2007

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh
elected a local security chief as its new leader Friday, but the change
was unlikely to bring new policies or unlock a 20-year conflict over
the region.

Bako Saakyan, who served in the administration of outgoing separatist
President Arkady Gukasyan and was endorsed by his boss to replace him,
won with 85 percent in Thursday’s vote, preliminary results showed.

Azerbaijan — which lost a war for control of the mountainous territory
in the 1990s — called the vote illegal, while the European Union
said Thursday that it did not recognize the election as legitimate.

Nagorno-Karabakh, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, is legally
part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan.

It has declared itself an independent state but has not been recognized
by any country. Efforts to negotiate a settlement with Azerbaijan
have made no substantial progress.

"The EU underlines that it does not recognize the independence of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Neither does it recognize the legitimacy of these
‘presidential elections,’" Portugal, which holds the rotating EU
presidency, said in a statement.