Turkey, Ankara / Тrend corr A. Alaskarov / The Turkish Foreign Ministry publicized a report in Ankara on 17 July condemning the illegal presidential elections in the Azerbaijani occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh scheduled for 19 July.
The document stated, "As it was known, after an illegal constitutional referendum held in Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh territories occupied by Armenia on 10 December 2006, the so-called presidential elections are planned to be held in the area on 19 July 2007." The report says that the illegal elections are considered in Ankara to be a component of efforts and unilateral steps intended to legalize the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh which does not correspond to the standards of the international law, as well as to violate the decisions made by the UN Security Council and OSCE.
The report emphasises that during the period when talks on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are in progress within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, holding the so-called presidential elections in occupied Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh should be viewed as a challenge to the peace process. In this connection, the Turkish Foreign Ministry, condemning the elections as another effort to break political unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, believes them to be incompetent from the standpoint of the international law and does not recognize the results of the elections.