December 24, 2003 - 23:51 AMT
MAJORITY OF KARABAKH POPULATION FOR PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT
The majority of the population of Nagorno Karabakh is for peaceful political settlement of the Karabakh conflict, say the results of a survey held by the Stepanakert Press Club along with the Yerevan Center for Social Technologies with the support of the Fridrich Ebert Fund. As reported by "Arminfo" agency, 1000 respondents, of which 500 from Stepanakert and 500 - from various regions of the republic, participated in the survey. The overwhelming majority of the interviewees consider that the solution of the problem relates to the international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR). As in previous surveys, Karabakh people consider an acceptable status for the NKR to be a sovereign state (44.9%) or reunion with Armenia (48.3%). At that any version of staying part of Azerbaijan is denied, including the one "with highest autonomy." The survey participants consider trilateral negotiations between Yerevan, Baku and Stepanakert (41.3%) to be the most fruitful format of negotiations. At the same time some respondents do not pin much hope on direct talks between Baku and Stepanakert (9.8%). 52.8% of respondents do not consider solution of the problem via exchange of territories acceptable, while 16.5% approve of it. 6.2% of interviewees believe in the soonest settlement of the conflict, while 24.8% think the issue will be solved later.