Azerbaijan "using Karabakh conflict to cover up its failure in democracy"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan is trying to use the Nagorno Karabakh conflict as a cover-up for its failure in democracy, spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan said Thursday, February 13.

Naghdalyan made the comments after Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement claiming that voters from Karabakh participated in recent parliamentary elections as well, while some newly elected parliamentarians were also elected representatives of Karabakh.

"On a number of occasions, we have stated that the establishment and enhancement of democratic societies in the region are in the interests of regional stability, development and prosperity," Naghdalyan said.

"We are aware of the assessment of those elections by the international observers. As it was assessed by the preliminary report of the international observation mission and the heads of the observation mission, the elections were marred by systematic and gross violations.

The spokeswoman said Azerbaijan is once again trying to use the conflict as a cover-up for its failure in democracy and extremely low level of legitimacy of the elections.

"The false and empty claims of Azerbaijan pretending that representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh have been elected in those elections vividly illustrate Azerbaijan's distorted perception of democracy," the diplomat said.

"The people of Artsakh have never participated in the elections of Azerbaijan either now, or throughout the entire history of the Republic of Azerbaijan."

Naghdalyan reminded that the people of Artsakh will exercise their right to vote in the upcoming nationwide elections to be held in the country on March 31 and elect their representatives – the President and the members of the National Assembly – through free expression of will.