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Agence France Presse
July 20, 2012 Friday 11:38 AM GMT
Karabakh re-elects leader as tensions rumble
STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan, July 20 2012
The unrecognised region of Nagorny-Karabakh re-elected leader Bako
Sahakyan, amid growing tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia over
its status, officials said Friday.
Sahakyan received 66.7 percent of the vote while his main rival,
retired army general Vitaliy Balasanian, got 32.5 percent, according
to the preliminary results published on the central election
commission's website.
Turnout was 73.4 percent in Thursday's vote, it added.
Internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, Nagorny-Karabakh was
seized by ethnic Armenians backed by Yerevan in a horrific war after
the collapse of the Soviet Union that claimed some 30,000 lives.
With its defence budget boosted from revenues from energy exports,
Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to retake the region and the
election took place after a surge in deadly shooting incidents across
the line of contact.
"By holding free and fair elections, we have demonstrated to the
outside world that we are a democracy while Azerbaijan continues to be
an authoritarian state," Sahakyan's spokesman, David Babaian, told
AFP.
Azerbaijan has denounced the polls as "illegal".
"The 'presidential elections' are illegal and they negatively affect
the process of negotiations," Azerbaijan's presidency spokesman Ali
Gasanov said in a statement.
Fatal exchanges of fire across the line of contact that marks the 1994
ceasefire and at the border between the two Caucasus countries are
still a frequent occurrence while the forests of Karabakh are littered
with death-trap landmines from the war.
In the latest incident that marked the atmosphere of growing tensions
between the two Caucasus countries, Azerbaijan's defence ministry said
an officer was killed on Friday by an Armenian sniper.
"Senior Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani army Jafar Jafarov has been
killed by an Armenian sniper's shot in the ceasefire violation near
Alibeyli village of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district," the ministry said in
a statement.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which
coordinates internationally mediated peace talks on Karabakh, said the
elections would not influence future decisions on Karabakh's political
status.
The vote can "in no way prejudge the final legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiations to bring a
lasting and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,"
Ambassadors of France, Russia, and the United States to the OSCE said
in a statement on Friday.
The three countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which mediates
peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the 1994 ceasefire.
The ambassadors said that "...none of their three countries, nor any
other country, recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent and
sovereign state."
European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton warned in a
statement on Wednesday that the EU would not recognise the elections
as legitimate.
She called on the parties "to step up their efforts to find a
negotiated solution of the conflict."
Now almost exclusively populated by Armenians, the region calls itself
the Nagorny-Karabakh Republic but its independence is not even
recognised by Yerevan.
Analysts say there is still no meaningful international effort to
settle the conflict and domestic issues in the two countries could tip
the dispute into a full-blown conflict.
mkh-ng-im/sjw/mb
July 20, 2012 Friday 11:38 AM GMT
Karabakh re-elects leader as tensions rumble
STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan, July 20 2012
The unrecognised region of Nagorny-Karabakh re-elected leader Bako
Sahakyan, amid growing tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia over
its status, officials said Friday.
Sahakyan received 66.7 percent of the vote while his main rival,
retired army general Vitaliy Balasanian, got 32.5 percent, according
to the preliminary results published on the central election
commission's website.
Turnout was 73.4 percent in Thursday's vote, it added.
Internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, Nagorny-Karabakh was
seized by ethnic Armenians backed by Yerevan in a horrific war after
the collapse of the Soviet Union that claimed some 30,000 lives.
With its defence budget boosted from revenues from energy exports,
Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to retake the region and the
election took place after a surge in deadly shooting incidents across
the line of contact.
"By holding free and fair elections, we have demonstrated to the
outside world that we are a democracy while Azerbaijan continues to be
an authoritarian state," Sahakyan's spokesman, David Babaian, told
AFP.
Azerbaijan has denounced the polls as "illegal".
"The 'presidential elections' are illegal and they negatively affect
the process of negotiations," Azerbaijan's presidency spokesman Ali
Gasanov said in a statement.
Fatal exchanges of fire across the line of contact that marks the 1994
ceasefire and at the border between the two Caucasus countries are
still a frequent occurrence while the forests of Karabakh are littered
with death-trap landmines from the war.
In the latest incident that marked the atmosphere of growing tensions
between the two Caucasus countries, Azerbaijan's defence ministry said
an officer was killed on Friday by an Armenian sniper.
"Senior Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani army Jafar Jafarov has been
killed by an Armenian sniper's shot in the ceasefire violation near
Alibeyli village of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district," the ministry said in
a statement.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which
coordinates internationally mediated peace talks on Karabakh, said the
elections would not influence future decisions on Karabakh's political
status.
The vote can "in no way prejudge the final legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh or the outcome of the ongoing negotiations to bring a
lasting and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,"
Ambassadors of France, Russia, and the United States to the OSCE said
in a statement on Friday.
The three countries co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group, which mediates
peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the 1994 ceasefire.
The ambassadors said that "...none of their three countries, nor any
other country, recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent and
sovereign state."
European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton warned in a
statement on Wednesday that the EU would not recognise the elections
as legitimate.
She called on the parties "to step up their efforts to find a
negotiated solution of the conflict."
Now almost exclusively populated by Armenians, the region calls itself
the Nagorny-Karabakh Republic but its independence is not even
recognised by Yerevan.
Analysts say there is still no meaningful international effort to
settle the conflict and domestic issues in the two countries could tip
the dispute into a full-blown conflict.
mkh-ng-im/sjw/mb