Artsakh votes for President

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Nagorno-Karabakh Votes for President

YEREVAN, Armenia -- The Armenian-controlled breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh was holding a presidential election Thursday amid a rumbling dispute with Azerbaijan over the mountainous enclave's unrecognized independence.

It is the fourth presidential election in the impoverished territory inside Azerbaijan that has been controlled by Armenian and ethnic Armenian forces since a shaky 1994 cease-fire ended one of the bloodiest conflicts that followed the Soviet collapse.

The six-year war killed 30,000 people and drove more than 1 million from their homes, including many of the region's ethnic Azeris. Today, it remains one of the region's "frozen" conflicts.

Pollsters and analysts said former security chief Bako Saakian tops the list of five candidates campaigning to replace the incumbent Arkady Ghukasian, who is ineligible to run after two five-year terms in office.

Saakian, 47, headed Nagorno-Karabakh's security service since 2001, resigning in June to stand in the election. He is running as an independent and is backed by the Armenian government in Yerevan.

Azerbaijan, which has rejected the vote as having no legal meaning, is still at loggerheads with Armenia despite more than a decade of coaxing from international mediators led by the United States, Russia and France to resolve the region's status.

No country has recognized the independence of the mostly agricultural region of 146,000 people, which has faced a steady brain drain and dire economic problems despite financial aid from Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.

Saakian has said that international recognition of Kosovo as an independent state would pave the way for acceptance of Nagorno-Karabakh's sovereignty.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7071900423.html

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Azerbaijan breakaway elects new president

VOTERS went to the polls today in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh to elect a new president for this isolated, ethnic Armenian-controlled mountain enclave.

Early results showed Bako Sahakian, a former head of the state security service, storming to victory.

With 30 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Sahakian was well ahead with 87.1 per cent of the vote, the central elections commission said.

His nearest rival, deputy foreign minister Masis Maylian, placed a distant second with 11.2 per cent of the vote.

Officials said they hoped the vote would shore up the region's democratic credentials, boosting its efforts to become an internationally recognised country after 15 years of self-declared independence.

No country in the world recognises the independence of Karabakh, and the international community has ignored the vote.

Azerbaijan, which has vowed to regain control of the region, has already denounced the election as having "no legal effect whatsoever".

Current President Arkady Ghukasian was ineligble to run after two terms as president.

Many voters said they preferred Mr Sahakian because of his record in the security services.

"I like Masis very much, but now is not the time for intellectuals," said Armen Martirosian, 41, after voting for Mr Sahakian. "As long as the war is not over we need a strong person in charge."

Voter turnout had reached 76.25 per cent before polls closed at 8pm local time (1am AEST), the elections commission announced.

At least 25 per cent of voters had to participate for the election to be valid.

Voting at a school in Stepanakert, Mr Sahakian said he hoped the election would convince the international community that Karabakh can be a functioning democratic state.

"We are holding this election to build a civil society and prove to the world that we want to be a democratic country," he said.

But Mr Maylian, who has accused the authorities of campaigning against him, said his office had filed 14 complaints with the elections commission over alleged irregularities.

He rejected claims that he was hurting Karabakh's chances of winning international recognition by raising questions about the election's democratic credentials.

"If we love our country and we want the civilised world to recognise us, we must be democratic," he said.

Backed by their ethnic brethren in Armenia, separatists seized Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.

The war was one of the bloodiest of the many conflicts that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming 30,000 lives and forcing nearly one million people on both sides to flee their homes.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain officially at war over Karabakh and the dispute is a major source of instability in the strategic South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

Heavily armed and supported by Armenia's widespread diaspora community, Karabakh's 150,000 people have remained defiant in the face of oil-rich Azerbaijan's promises to regain control of the region, by force if necessary.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...17-1702,00.html

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N Karabakh elects separatist head

Mr Sahakyan wants international recognition for Nagorno-Karabakh

The breakaway ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh has elected a separatist former security chief as president, election officials say.

Bako Sahakyan secured 85% of the vote in a landslide victory.

Nagorno Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, which has dismissed the vote. Thousands died when Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over the area in the 1990s.

Mr Sahakyan has said he wants the poll to help Nagorno-Karabakh secure broader approval for its claim to independence.

No country currently recognises the enclave's claim.

Kosovo comparison

Turnout in the election was high, the territory's election commission said, with 77% of 91,000 registered voters having cast their ballots.

Thursday's presidential election was the fourth held in the territory since Azerbaijan lost control of it in 1995.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bitter war over Nagorno Karabakh

Mr Sahakyan's main rival, Masis Mailian, got 12% of the vote, election officials said.

Both candidates had expressed their support for the territory's claim to independence.

BBC correspondent Matthew Collin says the election to the presidency of a former security chief shows memories of war remain fresh in the region.

The outgoing leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady Gukasyan, had said the territory had a stronger claim to independence than the Serb province of Kosovo.

But the UN, which is considering a plan that offers Kosovo "supervised independence", has rejected any similar settlement for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan says the separatist Armenian authorities came to power in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of ethnic cleansing and that the enclave must not be allowed to break away.

Armenia insists the region has the right to choose its own destiny.

Years of talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia have failed to deliver a peace deal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6908092.stm

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Voting begins in fledgling 'state'

Story Highlights

Election intended to stress self-proclaimed independence from Azerbaijan

Karabakh seceded in 1990s, though not internationally recognized

Both leading contenders adamant on full independence for Karabakh

Muslim Azerbaijan denounces the election as illegal under international law

STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Reuters) -- Voting for a new leader started in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday in an election intended to stress the Armenian-populated region's self-proclaimed independence from Azerbaijan.

The head of the region's election commission Sergey Nasibyan hailed the election campaign as democratic and said local and foreign observers were monitoring the polls, Armenian television reported.

Muslim Azerbaijan, which lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh after a war in the early 1990s, has already denounced the election as illegal under international law.

At least 25 percent of the enclave's 91,000 voters have to take part for the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (0300 to 1500 GMT) election to be considered valid by Karabakh authorities. Anyone taking over 50 percent of the votes in the first round wins outright.

Karabakh seceded from Azerbaijan in the 1990s and proclaimed independence, though this has not been recognized by the rest of the world.

No international organizations will monitor the vote, in which five hopefuls are running to replace Karabakh's current leader Arkady Gukasyan, who is due to step down after holding the post for two five-year terms.

Bako Saakyan, a 46-year-old former head of Karabakh's security service who is openly supported by the incumbent, is the favorite to win. His main rival is the region's deputy foreign minister Masis Mailyan, aged 39.

Many of the Azeri minority fled during the fighting, which claimed more than 35,000 lives before a cease-fire was brokered in 1994, and the region is now populated almost entirely by ethnic Armenians, who enjoy Christian Armenia's backing.

Armenia's current president Robert Kocharyan is a former leader of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"The authorities have declared their support for Saakyan. This means it is namely him who will become the next president," said a taxi driver in the Karabakh capital, Stepanakert.

Both leading contenders are adamant on the main issue -- full independence for Karabakh.

Saakyan says he wants to make the sliver of land and its 140,000 people "an example of democratic rule" to persuade the international community to recognize Karabakh's independence.

"Creating civil society is the way towards resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," he has said during his campaign.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been trying to broker a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the 1994 cease-fire.

Mailyan said he hopes that eventual international recognition of Serbia's rebel province of Kosovo, populated mainly by ethnic Albanians, will create an important precedent leading to officially accepted independence for Karabakh.

"The Kosovo precedent, if it occurs and if international recognition finally takes place, is of interest to me because an unrecognized state will thus become recognized, irrespective of what its mother country has to say," Mailyan told Reuters.

"This means we have a chance to become independent -- according to a new scenario."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has already said he does not consider Kosovo a precedent for Nagorno-Karabakh.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/....election.reut/

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Karabakh Votes to Elect New President

STEPANAKERT, July 19--Voters went to the polls Thursday in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh to elect a new president for the Armenian-controlled mountain enclave.

Officials said they hoped the vote would shore up the region's democratic credentials, boosting its efforts to become an internationally recognized country after 15 years of self-declared independence.

No country in the world recognizes the independence of Karabakh and the international community has ignored the vote. Azerbaijan has already denounced the election as having "no legal effect whatsoever."

Analysts said Bako Sahakian, a former head of the state security service, was most likely to replace Arkady Ghukasian, who is ineligible to run after two terms as president.

Polls opened at 0300 GMT and were to close at 1500 GMT. At a school near the center of the local capital, Stepanakert, a trickle of voters were casting their ballots.

Backed by their ethnic brethren in Armenia, separatists seized Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.

The war was one of the bloodiest of the many conflicts that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming 30,000 lives and forcing nearly one million people on both sides to flee their homes.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain officially at war over Karabakh and the dispute is a major source of instability in the strategic South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

Heavily armed and supported by Armenia's widespread diaspora community, Karabakh's 150,000 people have remained defiant in the face of oil-rich Azerbaijan's vows to regain control of the region, by force if necessary.

Sporadic clashes continue along Karabakh's border.

A full-blown conflict could derail Western-backed efforts to build a corridor of pipelines to carry Azerbaijani and Central Asian oil and gas through the South Caucasus to Europe.

International mediation to resolve the conflict has repeatedly failed.

Five candidates are registered in the Karabakh presidential race. Analysts said Masis Maylian, a deputy foreign minister who claims to represent a reformist camp within the government, was running a distant second to Sahakian.

There are few fundamental differences between the platforms of the various contenders, with all promising to continue the fight for independence and bring economic reform.

Preliminary results are expected Friday.

http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.a...120070719095038

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Nagorno-Karabakh Elects a President

Friday July 20, 2007 9:46 PM

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - 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.

Bako Saakian headed Nagorno-Karabakh's security service from 2001 until June, when he resigned to seek the presidency. He ran as an independent and will succeed Arkady Gukasian, who served two five-year terms.

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.

His main rival, Masis Mailian, got about 12 percent of the vote, with the remainder split among three other candidates, election committee head Sergei Nasibian said. Three-quarters of the territory's 92,000 registered voters cast ballots.

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.''

However, Azerbaijan rejected the vote as illegitimate and maintained that Armenian separatists took power through ethnic cleansing.

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.

Azerbaijan and Armenia remain locked in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh despite more than a decade of international mediation led by the United States, Russia and France.

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/stor...6794571,00.html

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Azerbaijan Breakaway Region Elects New President

By VOA News

20 July 2007

The former security chief in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has won the presidential election in the majority Armenian enclave.

Bako Sahakian was declared the winner Friday, with 85 percent of the vote in Thursday's balloting. He easily defeated his closest rival, Deputy Foreign Minister Masis Maylian, and three others in the five-person race.

Azerbaijan has denounced the election as illegal. The predominantly Armenian-inhabited area declared independence in 1988, but has no international recognition. The declaration triggered a six-year conflict that killed 35,000 people.

All five candidates support independence for the region. Analysts say Nagorno-Karabakh views international deliberations on Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province as a precedent for its own status.

Efforts to reach a final settlement on the future of Nagorno-Karabakh have so far been unsuccessful.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-07-20-voa17.cfm

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U.S. observers hail Karabakh elections as free, transparent

STEPANAKERT. July 20 (Interfax) - Members of the U.S. Public International Law and Politics Group who worked at the July 19 presidential elections in the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno- Karabakh have said that the elections were free and transparent and fully complied with Nagorno-Karabakh legislation and international law.

The electoral process was organized very well, the group's executive director Paul Williams told a news conference in Stepanakert on Friday.

The time will come when Nagorno-Karabakh will gain international recognition of its independence, he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh is in a considerably more favorable situation than other similar territorial entities, Williams said.

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.htm..._issue=11794664

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High turnout in Nagorno-Karabakh

The turnout easily surpassed the one quarter needed to be valid

Large numbers of people are reported to have voted in presidential elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Separatist leaders hope this will be another step towards independence.

Azeri and Armenian forces fought a war over the territory in the 1990s, in which some 30,000 people died and more than a million people fled their homes.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, which has condemned the elections as illegal.

Election officials in the tiny mountainous region said around two-thirds of the electorate had voted three hours before the polls closed at 2000 local time (1600 BST).

The poll was declared valid, since turnout was higher than the required one quarter of registered voters.

Preliminary results of the election, in which 91,000 people were eligible to vote, are expected on Friday.

Kosovo precedent

Any candidate who garners at least half the votes wins outright. The favourite is Bako Sahakyan, a former head of the security service, who was endorsed by the outgoing incumbent.

BBC's Matthew Collin reports from the capital Stepanakert, that the high turnout will be seen by the ethnic Armenian separatists, who have controlled Nagorno-Karabakh since the Azeri population fled during the war, as another sign of democratic progress.

Outgoing Karabakh leader, Arkady Gukasyan, told journalists in Stepanakert: "Nagorno-Karabakh has more arguments to acquire independence than Kosovo. If Kosovo receives independence, then it is unclear why Karabakh cannot follow suit."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has already said he considers Kosovo a special situation which does not set a precedent for Nagorno-Karabakh.

A spokesman at Azerbaijan's presidential administration said no country in the world recognises these elections as valid.

Azerbaijan says the separatist Armenian authorities came to power in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of ethnic cleansing and that the enclave must not be allowed to break away.

Years of talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia have failed to deliver a peace deal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6907012.stm

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Hatred blights Nagorno-Karabakh

By Matthew Collin

BBC News, Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh

There are still signs of Muslim influence in Shusha, a rural town in Nagorno-Karabakh which was devastated by the war between Azeri and Armenian forces in the 1990s.

An old Turkish bath-house stands derelict, and the damaged minaret of a mosque once used by Azeris who used to live in Shusha pokes out over a gutted office building.

The ethnic Armenians who now control Nagorno-Karabakh are renovating another of Shusha's mosques as part of the reconstruction effort.

But no Azeris are likely to come back here to pray.

"No Muslims live here now, of course," says Father Andreas at Shusha's imposing Christian church, which has also been rebuilt. "The mosques are just historical monuments."

'Evil dogs'

More than a decade after the ceasefire, a lot of hatred remains.

Valery Baghdassarian, who sells fruit and vegetables in Shusha's town centre, says the Azeris will never be able to return.

"You can't live together with an evil dog. There was bloodshed here and you can't give away land which was bought with blood. Shusha was never Azeri and never will be."

Nagorno-Karabakh is a tiny mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan. Violence broke out here just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when ethnic Armenians demanded independence.

Some 30,000 people died and more than a million Azeris and Armenians fled their homes.

A ceasefire was agreed in 1994 after the Armenians effectively won the war for the territory, but years of negotiations have not delivered a peace deal.

Unrecognised polls

Azerbaijan insists Nagorno-Karabakh must never be allowed to break away. But Armenia says it should have the right to choose its own destiny.

Ethnic Armenians overwhelmingly backed independence in 2006

The politicians campaigning in Thursday's presidential elections in Nagorno-Karabakh say the polls are another step towards being recognised as an independent state.

"The main thing is that here we have a society that wants to live in a democratic way, and we understand that we're doing it first of all for us, not to show to anybody that we are so democratic," says the separatist deputy foreign minister, Masis Mailian.

"But on the other hand it's not bad to show to the international community that our population chose a democratic way of development."

However, the polls have been condemned by Azerbaijan, which says they violate international law and will be ignored by the rest of the world.

Poverty and hatred

"The separatist regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan represents nothing but an illegal structure established by Armenia on the basis of ethnic cleansing of the Azeri population," said a statement from Azerbaijan's foreign ministry.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bitter war over Nagorno-Karabakh

Despite financial support from the Armenian government and the huge Armenian diaspora, Nagorno-Karabakh remains a poor, largely agricultural region, struggling economically in international isolation.

"Karabakh was already a backward region in Soviet times," says Artur Gabrielian, the director of a vodka and wine factory in the town of Askeran.

"After the war, it is much more difficult to expand the economy. Again it's because of the political status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which prevents economic development."

While the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh continues, the poverty and the hatred are likely to continue too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6905648.stm

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Nagorno-Karabakh holds elections

By Matthew Collin

BBC News, Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh

People in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh are voting in presidential elections, which they hope will further their aim of independence.

But Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, which has condemned the polls as illegal.

Azeri and Armenian forces fought a bitter war over the territory in the 1990s, which left some 30,000 people dead.

No country recognises the independence of the breakaway region.

Nagorno-Karabakh wants to prove it could become an independent, democratic state.

But this tiny, mountainous region is still the subject of a bitter dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, more than a decade after the ceasefire. Armenian forces won the war and now control Nagorno-Karabakh, after the Azeri population fled and years of negotiations have failed to deliver a peace deal.

Unrecognized poll

One of the candidates for president, Bako Sahakian, says the election will demonstrate the democratic progress Nagorno-Karabakh has made.

Old hatreds die hard

"It is the most civilised way towards building democracy and civil society. It is the best and the most progressive way to build a state. We will try to do everything possible to get the international community to recognise Nagorno-Karabakh.", Bako Sahakian says.

But Azerbaijan says the elections are being held by a separatist regime which was established by ethnic cleansing.

The Azeri foreign ministry spokesman, Khazar Ibrahim, says they are effectively meaningless.

"These are so-called elections conducted by the illegal regime which has basically occupied this region of Azerbaijan. These so-called elections have no legal effect because they contradict the norms and principles of international law," he said.

While Azerbaijan says Nagorno-Karabakh must not be allowed to break away. Armenia insists the region has the right to choose its own destiny.

The results of these elections are unlikely to bring a peaceful solution any closer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6905670.stm

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Secret service chief wins Nagorno-Karabakh presidential vote

Stepanakert/Moscow - Secret service chief Bako Saakyan was declared the winner Friday in the presidential elections held in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, gaining 85 per cent of the vote. The 47-year-old Saakyan was the overwhelming pre-election favourite to succeed Arkady Gukasyan. His closest competitor, Masis Mailian, gained 12 per cent of the vote, election officials said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh enclave is contested by Caucasus republics Azerbaijan and Armenia, with those two countries fighting a war over the enclave in the early 1990s which claimed thousands of lives and saw the displacement of some 750,000 Muslims.

Under international law, the enclave belongs to Azerbaijan, but Saakyan has gone on record to push for independence, backed by Armenia.

Last month, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev had warned against the reignition of separatist conflicts in the Caucasus and said that Azerbaijan would not recognize the presidential elections.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/85022.html

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Election In Breakaway Region

July 20, 2007 11 29 GMT

Bako Saakyan, former head of the security service in Azerbaijan's breakaway province of Nagorno-Karabakh, won 85 percent of the vote in the July 19 leadership election, according to preliminary results released by the central election committee July 20. Masis Mailyan, Saakyan's main opponent, received 10.9 percent of the vote. The Organization of the Islamic Conference and the French government condemned the election, while the United States called it fair and transparent. Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian province, declared its independence in the 1990s. Azerbaijan does not recognize it.

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/r...e.php?id=292612

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Former security chief wins Karabakh presidential vote

A presidential election in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh was won by a former head of security for the territory, Bako Sahakian, election officials said on Friday.

Sahakian won 85 percent of the vote at Thursday's polls in the unrecognised territory, the central election commission said after all votes had been counted.

His nearest rival, deputy foreign minister Masis Maylian, came a distant second with 12 percent of the vote.

The results were preliminary, with final confirmation expected late Friday.

Slightly more than 77 percent of the ethnic Armenian-controlled region's 92,000 registered voters took part, the elections commission said.

Backed by their ethnic brethren in Armenia, separatists seized Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.

The war was one of the bloodiest of the many conflicts that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming 30,000 lives and forcing nearly one million people on both sides to flee their homes.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain officially at war over Karabakh and the dispute is a major source of instability in the strategic South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/...v5wlfo&cat=null

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Separatist wins 85 pct in Azeri rebel region vote

STEPANAKERT, July 20 (Reuters) - Bako Saakyan, a 46-year-old former security chief, has won over 85 percent in a leadership election in the Azeri breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the central election commission said on Friday.

The data is preliminary and the final results will be announced later on Friday.

Saakyan wants full independence for the enclave, home to 140,000 people, from Azerbaijan and has compared its situation to Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, which the West wants to turn into an independent state.

Azerbaijan has declared the results illegal.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20682535.htm