Armenia=?UTF-8?B?4oCZ?=s ex-FM addresses presidential elections

On his Facebook page, Armenia's ex-FM Vartan Oskanian pointed out the importance of democratic presidential elections.Addressing the presidential election in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), Vartan Oskanian welcomes the fact that the election is not a merely formal procedure, and the incumbent president has a rather serious rival. He hopes that the election will not be marred by frauds.True, elections that are not the only indication of democracy, but they are the most obvious sign for the public and international community.Unfortunately, a Freedom House report ranks Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh among not free countries. The reason is that no opposition candidates participated in the 2010 parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia had been among "partly free" countries since it gained independence. However, in recent years the country has shown regress and has reached the "not free" category.Why this all is of importance. Regardless of Armenia' s attitude to assessments by Freedom House or other international organizations, the fact is that great powers and international agencies form their opinions of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh on the basis of international reports rather than on the basis of official statements and local TV reports.The fact is that the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process is in stalemate. Nonetheless, the Armenian sides succeeded in getting Nagorno-Karabakh's right to self-determination laid down as a basic principle of negotiations.Stalemates pose a threat, and Armenian diplomacy must propose ways out of this stalemate with a view of not only preserving the aforementioned principle, but also placing it on a new plane.The Armenian sides' task must be to get the Nagorno-Karabakh people's recognized right to self-determination internationally recognized as Nagorno-Karabakh independent status. One of the all-important preconditions for that is that Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh should meet European standards of democracy rather than be ranked with Azerbaijan, Oskanian writes.   Read more... (298 words)

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