ISKANDARYAN: BAKU DEEPLY NERVOUS WITH NK ELECTIONS

Panorama.am
13:49 31/05/2010

Politics

Declaring five Russian State Duma Deputies as persona non grata
has simply demonstrated Azerbaijani authorities’ nervous feelings,
political expert Alexander Iskandaryan, the director of Caucasus
Institute told at news conference.

Five deputies of Russian State Duma have been banned to enter
Azerbaijan who have had observer’s mission in NKR Parliamentary
elections. The black list of persona non grata includes Konstantin
Zatulin, Igor Chenishenko, Tatiana Volozhinskaya and Maxim Mishenko.

The expert said Azerbaijan demonstrated tough approach towards the
NK elections. “Of course, it was expected the elections wouldn’t be
recognized. But the attitude towards the Russian deputies approved
how nervous Azerbaijani authorities felt about,” Iskandaryan said.

Regarding the Azerbaijani MFA press speaker Elkhan Polukhov’s
statement, Iskandaryan said they’ve under doubt their political
rationalism.

“Such statement claiming that the list of persona non grata is being
verified aren’t made by chance and isn’t explained only by lack of
professionalism,” expert said. He reminded Karabakh hosted the 5th
elections and observers, particularly; Zatulin attended the previous
ones as well.

Iskandaryan said Baku may be alarmed by the high number of observers,
as about 100 observers followed NK elections from 10 countries.

From: A. Papazian