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BREAKAWAY KARABAKH ADOPTS PRO-INDEPENDENCE CHARTER
By Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters, UK
Dec 11 2006
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region
has overwhelmingly approved a new pro-independence constitution,
returns from a Sunday referendum showed.
According to official preliminary figures released on Monday, 98.6
percent of voters approved the constitution, which describes Karabakh
as a sovereign state. Turnout was 87.2 percent.
"According to preliminary results, the constitution is adopted and
December 10 from now can be declared as a Constitution Day," election
commission chief Sergey Nasibyan told Reuters by telephone.
The vote was held on the 15th anniversary of a referendum in which
Karabakh, which split from Azerbaijan in a 1990s war that killed
35,000 people, declared independence.
The new plebiscite was seen as a signal of commitment to independence
by the region.
Azerbaijan and the international community do not recognize
Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. There was no immediate reaction to
the vote by the Azeri government.
Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous territory about half
the size of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, is still unresolved,
fuelling instability in a part of the world that is emerging as a
major energy supplier.
The majority of people in Nagorno-Karabakh are Christian ethnic
Armenians who associate themselves with neighboring Armenia rather
than Azerbaijan, a majority Muslim state.
Azerbaijan is determined to restore its control over the region and
said the referendum was illegitimate.
The fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh was the bloodiest of the separatist
wars that broke out when the Soviet Union disintegrated. A fragile
ceasefire has been in force since 1994 but there are still occasional
exchanges of gunfire.
A major BP-led pipeline linking Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea oil fields to
world markets passes a few kilometers (miles) from the conflict zone.
Ethnic clashes in the late 1980s escalated after the collapse of the
Soviet Union into full-scale fighting. Armenia joined the fighting
on the side of the separatists.
Though Azerbaijan lost that war, it is now threatening a new military
campaign to crush the separatists if stalled peace talks do not
produce results soon.
Nagorno-Karabakh differs from other "frozen conflicts" in ex-Soviet
Georgia and Moldova in that former imperial master Russia has no
presence there and no direct interest in supporting either side.
By Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters, UK
Dec 11 2006
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region
has overwhelmingly approved a new pro-independence constitution,
returns from a Sunday referendum showed.
According to official preliminary figures released on Monday, 98.6
percent of voters approved the constitution, which describes Karabakh
as a sovereign state. Turnout was 87.2 percent.
"According to preliminary results, the constitution is adopted and
December 10 from now can be declared as a Constitution Day," election
commission chief Sergey Nasibyan told Reuters by telephone.
The vote was held on the 15th anniversary of a referendum in which
Karabakh, which split from Azerbaijan in a 1990s war that killed
35,000 people, declared independence.
The new plebiscite was seen as a signal of commitment to independence
by the region.
Azerbaijan and the international community do not recognize
Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. There was no immediate reaction to
the vote by the Azeri government.
Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous territory about half
the size of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, is still unresolved,
fuelling instability in a part of the world that is emerging as a
major energy supplier.
The majority of people in Nagorno-Karabakh are Christian ethnic
Armenians who associate themselves with neighboring Armenia rather
than Azerbaijan, a majority Muslim state.
Azerbaijan is determined to restore its control over the region and
said the referendum was illegitimate.
The fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh was the bloodiest of the separatist
wars that broke out when the Soviet Union disintegrated. A fragile
ceasefire has been in force since 1994 but there are still occasional
exchanges of gunfire.
A major BP-led pipeline linking Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea oil fields to
world markets passes a few kilometers (miles) from the conflict zone.
Ethnic clashes in the late 1980s escalated after the collapse of the
Soviet Union into full-scale fighting. Armenia joined the fighting
on the side of the separatists.
Though Azerbaijan lost that war, it is now threatening a new military
campaign to crush the separatists if stalled peace talks do not
produce results soon.
Nagorno-Karabakh differs from other "frozen conflicts" in ex-Soviet
Georgia and Moldova in that former imperial master Russia has no
presence there and no direct interest in supporting either side.