POLITICAL: IN THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS ELECTIONS IN NAGORNO KARABAKH INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE GUIDED BY BACKWARD IDEAS OF “COLD WAR”
arminfo
Friday, July 20, 12:42
There is an impression that the heads of the authoritative
international organizations who hurried to call illegitimate the
presidential election in Nagorno Karabakh are guided by backward ideas
of the “cold war”, Alexander Tsinker, Head of the Observation Mission
of the International expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES), told
ArmInfo. He said that denying the Karabakh people the right to vote
in democratic elections, international organizations, actually, do not
offer any alternative. “What do they offer? Do they offer the Karabakh
people to live in an unorganized country having no leadership and no
aspiration for human democratic values within 20 year?” Tsinker asks.
“I think, that the European Commission, NATO and other organizations
should be glad to see that the Karabakh people have their elected
leader that could represent them at the negotiations for peaceful
resolution of the conflict. It is necessary to deal with such
legitimate and elected leader during the negotiations. If those
representatives of international structures thought a bit longer, they
would not make such narrow-minded statements,” Alexander Tsinker said.
However, he thinks that they find some obscure wordings to show that
they are not against democracy, but NKR is an unrecognized state and
they cannot recognize elections in that country.
Tsinker brought the example of the Middle East conflict, resolution
of which often faces such obstacle as the Gaza Strip where there is
no one to negotiate with and no one there takes responsibility for
his words and decisions. That is why, the political expert said, it is
very important for the peace process that Karabakh has its leadership
that has a mandate to adopt decisions on behalf of the people and
its decisions will be fulfilled. And no one inside that country
will oppose the decisions of the leadership and peace talks. Tsinker
believes that non-recognition of NKR makes the leadership of NKR exert
genuine efforts to ensure maximum free, fair and transparent elections
that leave behind many internationally recognized countries by their
quality. In addition, candidates really compete and offer alternative
election programs. Unfortunately, international structures seem to
ignore existence of 160,000 residents of Nagorno Karabakh and their
expectations and desire to live in line with democratic principles.
Asked if fair and free elections will become an impetus for recognition
of NKR as a party to the conflict, Tsinker said that this process
is gathering pace. “This issue is now frequently touched upon at
the OSCE MG. The two key candidates for the president of NKR also
highlight importance of that issue and the people will not forgive
them if they stop fighting for involvement of NKR into the peace
process. Mediators, in their turn, are aware that they will face a
fiasco in their mission if they fail to achieve anything in the regular
cycle of negotiations. Moreover, they will be reluctant to admit that
failure like U.S. President Obama admitted the failure of his mission
in the Middle East. Therefore, involving Nagorno Karabakh into the
peace talks would at least show the world community that mediators
are seriously trying to get out of the deadlock. The mediation mission
represented by the OSCE MG is like a damaged generator that operates
without any effect as if it lacks a detail,” the expert said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
