Voters in Karabakh went to the polls on Sunday to elect their fifth parliament since the unrecognized Armenian republic broke free from Azerbaijan’s control in the early 1990s. More than 70 percent of some 95,000 eligible voters turned out to vote in the elections, according to Karabakh’s central election commission.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s top military commander on Wednesday brushed aside Azerbaijan’s continuing threats to win back the disputed region by force and said his forces have received new weaponry in recent months.
Russia’s new top Nagorno-Karabakh negotiator visited Stepanakert on Thursday the day after holding talks in Yerevan with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian.
A senior official in Nagorno-Karabakh said on Tuesday that he has asked authorities in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region to improve prison conditions of a local Armenian-born journalist who is facing up to 20 years’ imprisonment on controversial charges.
Campaigning officially started on Monday for the May 23 parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh that will be marked by a lack of candidates opposed to the unrecognized republic’s current leadership.
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian promised continued economic assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh as he presided over a joint meeting of the Armenian and Karabakh governments in Stepanakert at the weekend.
International mediators said over the weekend that Armenia disagrees with some provisions of their recently modified plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Military authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have denied violating a ceasefire following a casualties report issued by Azerbaijan on Thursday. A spokesman said Stepanakert remains committed to the agreed regime along the line of contact with Azerbaijani armed forces.
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet this week for their first face-to-face talks on Nagorno-Karabakh of the new year, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Sunday.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) has thrown its weight behind calls for authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh to prosecute anyone who publicly advocates the return of any of the Azerbaijani territories controlled by the Karabakh Armenians.
A member of parliament in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic suggests that local law-enforcers should start prosecuting people heard to speak about territorial concessions as a comprise in settling a long-running Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute.
President Serzh Sarkisian said the armed forces of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh maintain superiority over their Azerbaijani adversary as he ended a two-day inspection of Karabakh Armenian military bases and frontline positions on Thursday.
President Serzh Sarkisian inspected Armenian frontline positions around Nagorno-Karabakh and was due to meet top military officials in Stepanakert during a low-key visit to the territory on Wednesday.
Construction is on in a town near Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert, which had a strategic military importance during the war with Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, for a number of state agencies of the unrecognized Armenian republic to move there. The area’s administration says construction could be completed by 2011.
Medical services in Nagorno-Karabakh are struggling to cope with a surge in child births more than nine months after a mass wedding that was organized and sponsored by a Moscow-based Armenian businessman.
Eleven members of Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament have signed a petition urging the Armenian authorities to free a French national of Armenian descent who actively participated in last year’s anti-government protests in Yerevan and was arrested on controversial charges in November.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have refused to allow Jehovah’s Witnesses and another non-traditional religious group to legally operate in the self-proclaimed republic, citing their “methods of psychological influence” on the population.
A number of political forces in Karabakh have called for participation of this unrecognized Armenian republic in the negotiating process currently conducted between Armenia and Azerbaijan and warned against “jeopardizing” the security of the people living in the area.
The Foreign Ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh issued a statement on Wednesday calling for ‘resetting’ the current negotiating process that it describes as ‘distorted’.
Karabakh leader Bako Sahakian has spoken firmly of his unrecognized republic’s determination to remain independent amid continuing peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan that international mediators have said may provide a breakthrough soon. He also said Karabakh wants to return to the negotiating table as a full party.
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