Azerbaijan and EU refuse to recognize NKR elections

The parliamentary and presidential elections held in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) have no legal force, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has stated. According to the OSCE Minsk Group and the European Union (EU), the election results will not affect the legal status of the NKR and the outcome of negotiations on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 31, the NKR held voting at the presidential and parliamentary elections. The total voter turnout was 72.6%, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has informed.

The NKR elections violate the Constitution of Azerbaijan, as well as norms and principles of the international law ... and, therefore, have no legal force, "says the document, circulated on March 31 by the press service of the Azerbaijani MFA, which was translated by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have also stated that they refuse to accept the NKR election outcomes. "None of the co-chairing countries ... recognizes the NKR as an independent and sovereign state," says the statement posted on the OSCE's website. It also notes that the co-chairs do not accept the election outcomes as affecting the NKR's legal status.

The EU has stated that it does not recognize the constitutional and the legal frameworks, within which the NKR presidential and parliamentary elections were held," says the statement made by the press secretary of the European External Relations and Security Policy Service posted on the EU's website.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 1, 2020 at 06:03 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.