Azerbaijan has denounced the local elections held on Sept. 18 in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling them illegal.
Underlining that Armenia's decision to hold elections on Azerbaijan's territory lacks any validity and undermines the negotiations, under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, the statement noted that the so-called elections have no legal effect because they contradict the norms and principles of international law. Since Armenia has implemented a policy to homogenize the population through ethnic cleansing and forcing Azerbaijanis living in the region to migrate, the elections only represent the illegal structure established by Armenia.
"The so-called 'elections' were organized with the aim of concealing Armenia's policy of occupation and bolstering the results of the occupation of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territories," the statement said.
Commenting on the election in Nagorno-Karabakh, Hasan Kanbolat, chairman of the Middle East Strategic Research Center (ORSAM), noted that the elections for the local self-governing bodies that took place in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan are illegal.
“These elections will undermine efforts to find a peaceful solution for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he told Today's Zaman. Kanbolat argued that Russia and other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the US and France, do not exert enough of an effort to put an end to the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and try to legitimize the occupation via endless meetings. “One-fifth of Azerbaijan's total territory is under Armenian occupation. In order to prove its sincerity, Armenia should end the occupation. Although the two countries signed a cease-fire agreement in 1994, Armenia continuously violates it and attacks Azerbaijan's territory,” he added.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, a professor of international relations at Gazi University in Ankara, noted that the election has no practical meaning. However, if Azerbaijan moves slowly to respond to these kinds of developments, these elections will strengthen the hand of Armenia and Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in future developments. “For almost two decades almost 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory has been under Armenian occupation and more than 1 million people have been displaced. When we take into consideration this number of refugees, the legitimacy of the elections automatically becomes controversial,” he said.
Underlining that Nagorno-Karabakh has been Turkic throughout history, Erol stated that the main cause of this conflict was the USSR's border regulations. The USSR intentionally created political instability in the region to increase its domination over the parties and Russia also maintains USSR policies for the same purpose as well.
“In this issue Russia is the primary factor in solving the conflict. However, instead of settling the issue, Russia wants to use the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as a trump card in their relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now is the time for Azerbaijan, which reacted harshly to the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations in 2008, to reconsider Russia's approach toward Armenia,” he added.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich also announced that Russia does not recognize the local government elections held in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 18.
Lukashevich reaffirmed their support for the principles of territorial integrity and the non-use of force, as well as the other basic principles and norms of international law. Reiterating that Russia does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state, Lukashevich stated that the elections cannot influence the peace process for Nagorno-Karabakh.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu has issued a press release on the issue. While reiterating that the OIC fully recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the secretary-general stated that the recent elections in Nagorno-Karabakh gravely violate relevant norms and principles of international law and therefore have no legal effect.
İhsanoğlu has also emphasized that the OIC continues to support Azerbaijan's efforts to solve the territory dispute on the basis of relevant international resolutions.
Since the 1988-1994 war, Nagorno-Karabakh has been under Armenian control. Peace negotiations under the OSCE Minsk Group have been ongoing for almost two decades.
The two sides are currently negotiating a set of basic principles that return the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; give an interim status to Nagorno-Karabakh, providing guarantees for security and self-governance; create a corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh; allow for the future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh with a legally binding public expression of will through a referendum; give all internally displaced persons and refugees the right to return to their former places of residence; and establish international security guarantees that would include a peacekeeping operation. While Azerbaijan states that it has accepted the latest version of the basic principles, Armenia is still hesitating.
Sümeyra Koçer - Today’s Zaman
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