PRO-INDEPENDENCE PARTIES WIN KARABAKH VOTE
The Moscow Times
May 25 2010
Russia
YEREVAN, Armenia — Pro-independence parties won most seats in
elections to the new parliament of Azerbaijan’s breakaway enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh, officials said.
The weekend vote was denounced by Azerbaijan as illegal and a “new
election farce in the occupied territories.” The region, populated
by ethnic Armenians, proclaimed independence after a war in the early
1990s in which it was backed by Armenia.
Most candidates and parties called for independence for
Nagorno-Karabakh, while some want the region to become part of Armenia.
“The election was very important for … the recognition of Artsakh
[Nagorno-Karabakh] and its integration into a democratic and civilized
world,” a spokesman for President Bako Sahakyan said by phone from
the region’s capital, Stepanakert.
The Free Motherland party, led by the region’s prime minister, Ara
Harutyunyan, received 46 percent of the vote, and the pro-government
Democratic Party of Artsakh got 30 percent.
The Dashnaktsutsyun party, which favors union with Armenia, won
22 percent.
First results showed that the opposition Communists had not cleared
the 6 percent threshold to get into the parliament.
Parties will get 17 out of a total of 33 seats in the legislature,
while the rest will be distributed to candidates elected in
single-mandate constituencies.
Azerbaijan wants Nagorno-Karabakh back and does not rule out using
force. More than 15 years of mediation have failed to produce a final
peace deal, and the threat of war is never far away in a key energy
transit region to the West.
Turkey, Azerbaijan’s energy trading partner, closed its border with
Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with its ally.
The breakaway region has seen an increase in tension since Armenia
and Turkey announced a rapprochement last year. Azerbaijan feared
that its interest in Nagorno-Karabakh would be sacrificed as part of
a strategic deal.
The accord crumbled last month when Armenia suspended its
ratification following Turkish demands that it first reach terms over
Nagorno-Karabakh — a condition Turkey set to appease Azerbaijan.
In a move likely to irk Azerbaijan, Armenia said the vote in the
rebel region was an example of a “determined and free expression of
popular will.”
“Citizens of the Nagorno-Karabakh republic proved once again their
desire to live in a free and independent society,” Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian said in a statement.
From: A. Papazian