ARMENIANS HOLD REFERENDUM IN NAGORNY KARABAKH
Agence France Presse — English
December 10, 2006 Sunday 4:03 AM GMT
Armenians in Nagorny Karabakh on Sunday celebrate the 15th anniversary
of their decision to break away from Azerbaijan with a referendum
on a constitution for their separatist region in a move slammed by
central authorities in Baku.
The Karabakh vote follows on the heels of similar polls in a number
of unrecognized mini-states in the former Soviet Union, including
Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia and Moldova’s Transdniestr earlier
this year.
The vote is seen by outsiders as an attempt to draw attention to
the plight of Karabakh’s separatist government, which has sought
recognition since it won de-facto independence from Azerbaijan in a
grueling early 1990s war.
Nagorny Karabakh, which has its own military, flag and government,
displays many of the characteristics of an independent state but is
internationally considered part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry criticized the upcoming vote last week,
saying it "interferes with an ongoing peace process" adding that a
poll in Karabakh could not be considered legitimate until the area’s
exiled Azerbaijani population was allowed to return.
Despite years of talks little has changed on the ground in Karabakh,
a region of some 140,000 people which subsists on aid from neighboring
Armenia and generous donations from millions of Armenians living in
the West and Russia, since the war’s end.
Exchanges of gunfire over a tense cease fire line with Azerbaijan
are a common occurrence and dozens of soldiers die on both sides of
the fixed front line each year.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in the late 1980s
when a wave of independence movements swept across Soviet territory.
Some 25,000 people died in the conflict and up to a million people
were displaced, with some 250,000 Armenians fleeing Azerbaijani cities
and some 750,000 Azerbaijanis escaping from Karabakh and other areas
captured by Armenian forces.