Azerbaijan, Baku, July 24 / Trend /
The so-called 'presidential elections' conducted by separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh on July 19 have shown the political mood of the local Armenian population.
This is the first time when less than 50 per cent of the 'electorate' at any 'elections' voted for the incumbent 'president'. That is, 'the president was elected' by a small number of votes, director of the Centre of Political Innovations and Technologies Mubariz Ahmedoglu told Trend on Monday. The list of 'voters' included 99,000 people with around 48,000 voting for Sahakyan.
"This is about 48 per cent of votes," he added. "Most of the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh has not voted for the incumbent 'president'. Most of the servicemen in the Nagorno-Karabakh voted for Bako Sahakyan who won the elections. There are 22,000 servicemen in Nagorno-Karabakh, but some people say 30,000. Only 2000 are Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the rest are Armenians, drafted for military service from Armenia. If one excludes 20,000 (and perhaps 28,000) from this number of votes given for Sahakyan, the remaining votes will be equal to those given for the opposition candidate, serviceman Balasanyan."
Ahmedoglu thinks that if one takes away 28,000 votes of Armenian soldiers given to Sahakyan, it will turn out that less people voted for Balasanyan than for Sahakyan. He lost 11,000 votes compared to the previous 'presidential elections'.
"According to opposition candidate Balasanyan, the internal situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is so tense that people can move to the Azerbaijani side as in 1923," he said. "Indeed, a referendum on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh was held in August 1923. The Armenian part of the population voted to remain within Azerbaijan. It was then that the Bureau of the Azerbaijani Communist Party submitted the decision to the Caucasian Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for approval. The Caucasian Bureau made a decision on Nagorno-Karabakh to remain a part of Azerbaijan. Most members of the Caucasian Bureau were the Armenians."
He added that Balasanyan's statement is recognition of the fact it is necessary to determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia because the Armenians are trying to completely forget this moment of history. Balasanyan's participation in the political processes, defeat in the 'elections' and joining the opposition in the near future will make the processes of Nagorno-Karabakh along with the processes in East Timor similar.
He stressed that the so-called 'elections' in Nagorno-Karabakh showed the attitude of Armenians living there to the Armenian leadership, their political course, including the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, or joining Armenia. The attitude of Armenians living there to these issues differs from that of the bandit leadership of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.