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Voters In Disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Overwhelmingly Back Constitution

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  • Voters In Disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Overwhelmingly Back Constitution

    VOTERS IN DISPUTED NAGORNO-KARABAKH OVERWHELMINGLY BACK CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM
    By Avet Demourian, Associated Press Writer

    Associated Press Worldstream
    December 11, 2006 Monday

    Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh overwhelmingly supported a draft
    constitution that describes the disputed territory claimed by
    Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians as a "sovereign,
    democratic" state, officials said Monday.

    Sergei Nasibyan, chairman of the regional election commission, said
    preliminary results indicated more than 98 percent of the 77,000
    voters casting ballots backed the proposed constitution. The region
    has more than 90,000 eligible voters.

    Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan that has been under
    the control of Armenian and ethnic-Armenian forces since a 1994
    cease-fire. A six-year separatist conflict killed about 30,000 people
    and drove about 1 million from their homes, including many of the
    region's ethnic Azeris.

    The region's final status remains unresolved, and years of talks
    under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
    in Europe have brought few visible results.

    Armenia has close ties to Nagorno-Karabakh's government and provides
    substantial support to the region, but has stopped short of recognizing
    it as independent.

    Armenian President Robert Kocharian on Monday congratulated
    Nagorno-Karabakh's government and people on the referendum, saying it
    "consolidated democratic principles" and "added a cornerstone to the
    development of the Nagorno-Karabakh statehood."

    Azerbaijan's foreign minister on Monday warned that the vote would have
    a negative influence on internationally mediated efforts to resolve
    the region's status. Elmar Mammadyarov said any such vote would have
    to include Azeri refugees who fled Nagorno-Karabakh to be valid.

    "I will say once again that this unnecessary act does not allow the
    achievement of peace; on the contrary, it creates complications,"
    he said in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.

    The European Union said it would not recognize the referendum, saying
    that it pre-empts the outcome of negotiations and "did not contribute
    to constructive efforts at peaceful conflict resolution."

    The so-called Minsk group of the OSCE dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict criticized the vote, saying it wasn't helping a negotiated
    settlement.

    "Conducting such a referendum now, thus pre-empting the final legal
    status of Nagorno-Karabakh, rather than forging a compromise is
    particularly unhelpful at a moment when the OSCE Minsk group-mediated
    negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be on a
    constructive path," it said in a statement Monday.
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