High turnout in Nagorno-Karabakh
By Matthew Collin
BBC News
2006/12/10
There has been a high turnout in a referendum on a proposed
constitution for the disputed former Soviet territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh hope the vote will
take the region a step closer to becoming as an independent state.
A war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the early 1990s killed up to
30,000 people and left the territory under ethnic Armenian control.
But the Azeri government insists that it remains part of Azerbaijan.
The head of the election commission in Nagorno-Karabakh announced that
the turnout was high enough to make the referendum valid.
The result is expected be a strong endorsement for the proposed
constitution, which would declare this small mountainous enclave to be
a sovereign, democratic republic. The referendum came 12 years after
the ceasefire which ended the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
But with many of the one million people displaced by the war still
unable to return to their homes, the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh still
provokes bitter resentments in the region.
Autonomy rejected The separatist president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady
Gukasyan, said this was a historic chance to establish a democratic
state. But he admitted it did not mean the international community
would immediately recognise Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.
Armenia supports the region’s ambition to become independent. But
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, and the Azeri government
insists it must not be allowed to break away. It said the referendum
was illegal, and could damage the peace process.
Azerbaijan has offered Nagorno-Karabakh widespread autonomy as part of
a peace deal. But that has been rejected by the separatist
authorities.
The conflicting opinions about the referendum simply demonstrate that
even after years of peace talks, a solution to this long-running
dispute remains hard to find.
Story from BBC NEWS:
/6166497.stm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
