NAGORNO-KARABAKH ELECTS A PRESIDENT
Ottawa Recorder, CA
July 21 2007
YEREVAN, Armenia – Nagorno-Karabakh’s former security chief won the
presidency of the Armenian-controlled breakaway region with 85 percent
of the vote, the election committee said Friday.
The 47-year-old Saakian pledged to push for full independence for the
mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh’s claim to
autonomy is not recognized by any country.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian congratulated Saakian in a message
that said the election "bears witness to an irreversible historical
reality – the existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic."
Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by Armenian forces since a 1994
cease-fire ended one of the bloodiest post-Soviet conflicts. The
six-year war killed 30,000 people and displaced more than 1 million
people, including many of the region’s ethnic Azeris.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a Russian-Turkish term that means "mountainous
black garden." Ethnic Armenians, who now account for almost the entire
population, call it Artsakh.