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DEMOCRATIZATION AS AN ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE RECOGNITION OF THE UNRECOGNIZED BY DAVID STEPANYAN
arminfo
Tuesday, July 24, 02:29
The first thing that strikes the eye when one looks at the results
of the past presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh is that the
opposition candidate, the hero of Artsakh, the former Deputy Defense
Minister, Vitaly Balasanyan, has secured 32.50% of the votes.
Naturally, the election in Nagorno-Karabakh has ended in the victory
of the current president, but the fact that his opposition rival has
been supported by as many as 1/3 of the voters proves that democratic
society in this unrecognized republic is becoming reality.
July 22 the Central Election Commission of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic summed up the results of the July 19 presidential election:
the turnover was 73.43%, the winner was the current NKR President
Bako Sahakyan, with 66.70% of the votes.
During the previous four presidential elections the winners enjoyed
landslide victories, this year's winner received much fewer votes.
This does not, however, mean that his people do not love or respect
him. Simply this time they had a choice - something people in most
CIS countries (including Armenia and Azerbaijan) do not have.
Thus, the past election has become the first competitive election in
Nagorno-Karabakh. The key reason why Balasanyan has received so many
votes is that the opposition was consolidated, and this is a very
important factor. In fact, what the Nagorno-Karabakh people and all
Armenians mostly cared for was not the outcome of the election but
the fact of its conduct and its quality.
Almost all the observers, including those from abroad, have pointed
out that real opposition is taking shape in Nagorno-Karabakh. This
force has all chances to enter the parliament, and the authorities
cannot neglect this fact.
The election was held in a calm atmosphere. It is obvious that Bako
Sahakyan's men applied administrative resources during the voting, and
that the Armenian authorities, with their vast experience in so doing,
did not stand aside, but it is no less obvious that the political
environment in Nagorno-Karabakh is changing and that the republic is
strongly committed to develop democracy and to build civil society.
The high turnover has proved that the local population is highly
interested in democracy building.
Unlike presidential hopefuls in many other post-Soviet republics -
where people are still prone to Soviet mentality - Balasanyan has
recognized the victory of his rival - though with certain reservations.
Nagorno-Karabakh's democratic achievements look especially inspiring
if compared with the recent presidential elections in South Ossetia,
when the victory of the opposition candidate Alla Jioeva was cancelled
by Moscow and Abkhazia, when Moscow-sponsored Alexander Ankvab outran
Raul Khajimba and Sergey Shamba, with just 54.9% of the votes due to
active administrative backing.
In Transdniestria the leader of pro-Kremlin Renovation party Anatoly
Kaminsky was pushed by the Russia United party into the run-off but
still lost to his opposition rival Yevgenyt Shevchuk.
So, we can say that in all four unrecognized republics democratic
society is developing, simply, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia the
Kremlin's influence is still very strong.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a different story: it is ruled by a man who is
supported by Armenia and part of the Nagorno-Karabakh population but
is in no way a Russian puppet.
Thus, the July 19 presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh has
become one more example of democratization as an argument that the
unrecognized republics of the former Soviet Union should be recognized.
So, we can say that even despite their financial dependence on bigger
states and the pointblank refusal of their former "metropolises"
to recognize them, people in Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniestria, South
Ossetia and Abkhazia are gaining the right of choice - something the
citizens in the internationally recognized CIS republics are still
void of.
arminfo
Tuesday, July 24, 02:29
The first thing that strikes the eye when one looks at the results
of the past presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh is that the
opposition candidate, the hero of Artsakh, the former Deputy Defense
Minister, Vitaly Balasanyan, has secured 32.50% of the votes.
Naturally, the election in Nagorno-Karabakh has ended in the victory
of the current president, but the fact that his opposition rival has
been supported by as many as 1/3 of the voters proves that democratic
society in this unrecognized republic is becoming reality.
July 22 the Central Election Commission of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic summed up the results of the July 19 presidential election:
the turnover was 73.43%, the winner was the current NKR President
Bako Sahakyan, with 66.70% of the votes.
During the previous four presidential elections the winners enjoyed
landslide victories, this year's winner received much fewer votes.
This does not, however, mean that his people do not love or respect
him. Simply this time they had a choice - something people in most
CIS countries (including Armenia and Azerbaijan) do not have.
Thus, the past election has become the first competitive election in
Nagorno-Karabakh. The key reason why Balasanyan has received so many
votes is that the opposition was consolidated, and this is a very
important factor. In fact, what the Nagorno-Karabakh people and all
Armenians mostly cared for was not the outcome of the election but
the fact of its conduct and its quality.
Almost all the observers, including those from abroad, have pointed
out that real opposition is taking shape in Nagorno-Karabakh. This
force has all chances to enter the parliament, and the authorities
cannot neglect this fact.
The election was held in a calm atmosphere. It is obvious that Bako
Sahakyan's men applied administrative resources during the voting, and
that the Armenian authorities, with their vast experience in so doing,
did not stand aside, but it is no less obvious that the political
environment in Nagorno-Karabakh is changing and that the republic is
strongly committed to develop democracy and to build civil society.
The high turnover has proved that the local population is highly
interested in democracy building.
Unlike presidential hopefuls in many other post-Soviet republics -
where people are still prone to Soviet mentality - Balasanyan has
recognized the victory of his rival - though with certain reservations.
Nagorno-Karabakh's democratic achievements look especially inspiring
if compared with the recent presidential elections in South Ossetia,
when the victory of the opposition candidate Alla Jioeva was cancelled
by Moscow and Abkhazia, when Moscow-sponsored Alexander Ankvab outran
Raul Khajimba and Sergey Shamba, with just 54.9% of the votes due to
active administrative backing.
In Transdniestria the leader of pro-Kremlin Renovation party Anatoly
Kaminsky was pushed by the Russia United party into the run-off but
still lost to his opposition rival Yevgenyt Shevchuk.
So, we can say that in all four unrecognized republics democratic
society is developing, simply, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia the
Kremlin's influence is still very strong.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a different story: it is ruled by a man who is
supported by Armenia and part of the Nagorno-Karabakh population but
is in no way a Russian puppet.
Thus, the July 19 presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh has
become one more example of democratization as an argument that the
unrecognized republics of the former Soviet Union should be recognized.
So, we can say that even despite their financial dependence on bigger
states and the pointblank refusal of their former "metropolises"
to recognize them, people in Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniestria, South
Ossetia and Abkhazia are gaining the right of choice - something the
citizens in the internationally recognized CIS republics are still
void of.