ANKARA (Combined Sources)—Turkey and Azerbaijan issued separate statement on Thursday condemning upcoming parliamentary elections in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the Turkish Today’s Zaman reported.
The elections will take place on May 23 and will be the 5th time the Republic has held a democratic vote for its legislature since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Four political parties and 45 individual candidates are vying for 33 seats in the parliament. Seventeen of them are contested under the system of proportional representation, while the remaining seats will be distributed in 16 single-mandate constituencies.
According to News.az, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the polls are in violation of international law and illegal, adding that they cast a “shadow on regional stability and reduce to zero the efforts of the international mediators on the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.”
Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission similarly chimed in on Thursday, denouncing as illegal the upcoming parliamentary elections, RFE/RL reported.
The commission said in a statement that the May 23 elections violate Azerbaijan’s constitution and international law. It says holding elections and referendums on the territory of Azerbaijan is the exclusive prerogative of the country’s Central Election Commission.
It further condemns as interference in Azerbaijan’s domestic affairs the arrival of international observers in Stepanakert to monitor the voting.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has also condemned the upcoming elections.
Elections held in Karabakh have always been condemned by Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic declared independence from Soviet Rule in 1991. Azerbaijani forces invaded the fledgling republic shortly after a referendum was held confirming independence. The three-year war that ended in 1994 in a cease-fire agreement that has left Karabakh independent yet internationally unrecognized.
Let the dogs bark but the caravan moves on towards final victory.
“If you stop every time a dog barks, your road will never end.” – Saudi Arabian Proverb
Turkey and Azerbaijan should free the occupied territories of Western Armenia, Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhijevan. The polls in these occupied regions are in violation of international law and illegal.
verezh says:turkey dont open your big mouth…….nine times of present armenia which is equal to approx.
109 thousand square miles of armenian territory is occupied by you when you traveled as a mongol ,plus
2000000 armenians were iliminated from the surface of this world.That is a violation.
For azeriz : you didnt even existed when Baku was armenian territory and on……….
Nairian says: VEREZHson is in total in complete and in whole right… right… right…!!!!!
Where is our Van Lake, where is our Ourmia Lake, and all our lands in between. Our Van region, Bitlis region, Dikranagert region, Kharpert region, Moush region, Erzeroum region, Sepasdia region, Zankezour region, Nakhichevan region, Akhalkalak and Akhaltskha regions. Where are they Turkey????? To “azeris”, you didn’t exist 100 years ago. So don’t go bellicosing! Enough is enough!
Long live FREE, VICTORIOUS, and INDEPENDENT Arstakh (FORMERLY known as Nagorno-Karabagh) that now belongs to its rightful native population, the Armenians. Our rights to self-determination will NEVER be violated again with impunity to toward those that would dare to try and oppress us.
Armenia must reply harsh to turkey’s statement as siding openly to one conflicting side and interfering to “non of its business” boundary.
Aziks,
After loosing the control on Karabakh it is funny to state that “…May 23 elections violate Azerbaijan’s constitution and international law…”. What the f* are they talking about?
Armenia and Karabakh MUST adequately answer to these both hyenas.
Well said Mihran!
Lets give Ahmet a bit of his medicine back. The turkish saying goes…
Let the dogs bark but our caravan is moving forward towards VICTORY.
Why the independance of Artsakh is illegal and how the independance of Kosovo is cosidered legal, because Kosovars are muslims or Kosovars are morwe entitled to freedom and democracy than armenians ? Again and again double standard.
International bodies should support and congratulate a nation looking for its self-determination, a right internationnally accepted, and support armenians in this path specially taking into that armenians were massacred and experienced genicide(s) by Turkey and Azerbaidjan.
”Paytz yerani ayn azkin vor azadoutyan ge zohvi !!”
Nairian isk inchi menq ajt bolor taratsqnere kortseretsinq???
I’ld bet any amount of money that the people of Artsakh,formely known as Karabakh,could really care less if the Azeris, much less the Turks,condemn the elections.
The reason why Artsakh is free today and has been for 16 years is because they have not been overly concerned with what the outside world thinks. These courageous people have remained focused on the goal of sovereignty. Avarayr,Sardarapat and Artssakh…. three examples of when our people had major decisions
to make. Thanks to God for the heroic vision and conviction of the Artsakhtzis. This election milestone reminds us of the continued maturity of Artsakh and of the historic significanceof 1988-94. The Azeris should have thought twice about Stalin’s “gift”.
The elections proved that the majority rules: democracy at work.Since Bryza has been poorly selected,not mine,to represent,the U.S.Two of the worst turkophiles,he and his wife,will only detract all of the progress that has been made.his wife a natural born denier,a tURK,and he,by choice,a Jew,denying the the first GENOCIDE and accepting the second.
The Azeris need to let go.They lost and Armenians living in thier own homeland is just to much for the Turks and Azeris to accept.As to Bryza,this is a perfect example of American pandering or meddling in an attempt to appease.Come on HiC,it’s your State Dept.,take charge or at least responsibility! Acknowledging the Turkish attempt at GENOCIDE against the Armenians could be one of those watershed events that changes history.Or at the very least change the way America is viewed by the east.
Why condamning? Have not see an election before? Where are these Kurds elected to be members of the Turkish Parliament? In jail? Or the victimes of the Midnight Express? The EU condamned the move to jail the Kurdish parlamentarians and praised the free democratic election of Karabagh.
I suspect if the sons and grand sons of Ginkiz Khan, Timourlang, Hulagho, Abdul Hamid II, know the meaning of the word “election”, “freedom”, “democracy”. For them murder, slaughter, rape, killing,are more appealing than election and freedom.
There is an Arabic tale about a fox who, in September, was not able to grab a grape,so he conviced himself that the fruit is not ripe yet. Erdogan and his puppet Aliev acted according to the same fox mentality. They could not digest the Kharapagh election, they condemn it. Tukish mentality! What can I say?