KARABAKH HAS MADE MUCH MORE PROGRESS IN TERMS OF ITS CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT THAN KOSOVO: US OBSERVERS

ArmInfo, Armenia
Sept 25 2007

ArmInfo. A US Congressional briefing on free and fair elections in
Nagorno-Karabakh has recently been held.

The Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Washington told
ArmInfo that during the briefing Vladimir Matic, Paul Williams and
Meghan Stewart, members of the Washington-based Public International
Law and Policy Group, spoke on democracy building in the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic, Artsakh. They reiterated the main conclusion of
their election monitoring report in which they assessed this summer’s
vote as "free and fair". In his opening remarks, Vardan Barseghian,
the NKR Representative to the United States, thanked congressional
friends for their outstanding leadership on issues impacting the
people of Artsakh. Speaking about Artsakh’s democratic development,
Rep. Barseghian said: "Just eighteen days after its referendum
on independence in 1991, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic held its
first democratic parliamentary elections. These elections marked the
beginning of a difficult, complex but fruitful process of democratic
state building amidst significant internal and external challenges."

For his part, Ambassador Vladimir Matic, a retired diplomat now
teaching international relations at Clemson University, headed the
group’s mission to Artsakh. He said that Karabakh’s conduct of the
summer 2007 election is one of the "best examples" of democratic
practices that they have ever observed having monitored elections in
a dozen of other post-conflict areas. He also noted progress compared
to past elections in Artsakh.

In addition, Paul Williams, a former State Department lawyer and
currently a professor at the American University specializing in
conflict resolution and post-conflict legal development, argued that
"Karabakh has made much more progress in terms of its constitutional
development" than Kosovo and urged the international community to
take note of this progress.

The source reports that the members of the group visited nearly
50 polling sites in all of Karabakh’s electoral districts and met
presidential candidates and civil society representatives.

To note, the congressional briefing was spearheaded by the Co-Chairs
of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, Joe Knollenberg
and Frank Pallone, who wanted to provide an opportunity for Members
of the U.S. Congress and their staff to hear about developments in
Nagorno-Karabakh.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress