The English-Speaking Media on Nagorno-Karabakh Elections

• 05.05.2015, 11:25
•  Europe,  World,  NKR

On May 3 the sixth parliamentary elections were held in the Noagorno-Karabakh Republic. The the Russian-speaking press, let alone the Armenian one actively covered the topic, but the same cannot be said about the English-speaking press. There was an impression that many well-known newspapers and magazines just avoided this very creepy topic in order not to be engaged in the conflict in any way. However, those, which did write on the elections after all, were mainly too biased and one-sided.

Articles concerning the parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, are particularly found in Euractive.com, Worldbulletin.net and Eurasiareview.com. Among which, Euractive.com turns to be the more or less "balanced" one, introducing the opinions of all sides, both Armenia and Azerbaijan, plus giving a comment made by the European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, who through her spokesperson declared that European Union does not recognize the constitutional and legal framework within which the elections were to be held.

As for the Armenian and Azerbaijani reactions, the site quotes correspondingly the two spokesmen of both countries’ Foreign Ministries.

"The so-called "elections" in Armenian-occupied Karabakh have no legal force, they contradict Azerbaijan's constitution and international law,"- Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev said and added,-"Armenia stages a provocation called "elections" which harms the ongoing negotiations."

Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan in his turn said the following: "Holding elections in Nagorno-Karabakh proves the high level of democracy there."

The most important thing is that Euractiv.com, unlike its "colleague" sites, has also brought the words of NKR Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan, who, ahead of the vote, said: "The elections will be another step towards strengthening the democratic traditions and values in our country."

As for the Worldbulletin.net and Eurasiareview.com, it should be mentioned, that in their articles, they made a mere monologue of what Hikmat Hajiyev had ever said, filling the gaps with the awfully biased historical background and description of the Nagorno-Kharabakh conflict.

"Times are changing and not in favor of the Armenian side. Azerbaijan has set about taking more effective measures to put a stop to foreign citizens visiting the occupied lands. These visits unapproved by Baku and even more so the statements of support for separatism in Nagorno-Karabakh may not only mean that foreigners are "black-listed" by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, but may also face criminal charges," - Eurasiareview.com writes even not making any effort to  somehow link this kind of information with the fact of parliamentary elections being held in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday.

Here only one thing can be said: no matter the world recognizes the the parliamentary election in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic or not, the most important thing is that this was a clear indication that people in Artsakh have a right to vote and these elections were first of all for them. Besides, these elections were a step forwards towards democracy...