Breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region holds presidential poll declared illegal by Azerbaijan

Record ID: 903274

  • Title: Breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region holds presidential poll declared illegal by Azerbaijan
  • Date: 19th July 2017
  • Summary: STEPANAKERT, NAGORNO-KARABAKH, AZERBAIJAN (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) VIEW OF GOVERNMENT BUILDING IN BREAKAWAY REGION NAGORNO-KARABAKH'S MAIN CITY NAGORNO-KARABAKH'S FLAG EMBLEM ON TOP OF BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2017 17:37
  • Keywords: Azerbaijan Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh president election
  • Location: STEPANAKERT, NAGORNO-KARABAKH AND BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
  • City: STEPANAKERT, NAGORNO-KARABAKH AND BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016QDUDDZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The parliament of Azerbaijan's breakaway republic of Nagorno-Karabakh re-elected current head of the entity Bako Sahakyan as president on Wednesday (July 19).
    Sahakyan, who held top positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh army and served as the region's interior minister and the head of National Security service, became president in 2007.
    Thursday's vote allows him to retain the position until 2020, when election by parliament will be replaced by popular vote.
    Azerbaijan's foreign ministry called the vote illegal.
    "Presidential elections conducted by an illegal parliament is ridiculous and is nothing other than self deception," said foreign ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hajiev.
    Clashes over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, first erupted in 1991 and a ceasefire was agreed in 1994. But Azerbaijan and Armenia have regularly traded accusations of violence around the breakaway region and along the Azeri-Armenian border.
    Fighting has intensified in the past three years and turned into a violent flare-up of the conflict last April, when the International Crisis Group (ICG) said at least 200 people were killed.
    Since mid-January this year, deadly incidents between ethnic Azeris and Armenians over Nagorno-Karabakh involving the use of heavy artillery and anti-tank weapons have occurred and May saw a significant increase, including reports of self-guided rockets and missiles used near densely populated areas along the contact line.
    Efforts to secure a permanent settlement of the conflict in the South Caucasus, which is criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines, have failed despite mediation led by France, Russia and the United States, known as the OSCE Minsk Group.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register