Karabakh votes (again)

Published: Saturday July 21, 2007

On Thursday the people of Karabakh went to the polls and chose their new president. The election was hard fought. Both the president-elect, Bako Sahakian, and the runner-up, Masis Mayilian, were serious contenders: competent, well-respected, and well-liked. They differed in their approaches to significant socioeconomic and administrative matters. But both of them, and indeed the people of Karabakh, are unwavering in their commitment to their republic's security and continued democratic existence.

Mr. Sahakian will take from President Arkady Ghoukassian the reins of a stable state with a growing economy. Nonetheless, he will face some difficult ongoing challenges.

First among the challenges is national security. Karabakh's eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan, waged war against it and was defeated. Now Karabakh lives with constant threats of renewed war from Azerbaijan. It also lives with pressure to make dangerous concessions to Azerbaijan.

The new president knows that he must resist concessions that will endanger the people of Karabakh and their hard-won statehood, while continuing to work in good faith and agreeing to compromises to achieve an internationally recognized "final status" for Karabakh. This he will no doubt do.

As we have argued in this space before, Karabakh's security requires a concerted effort to see population growth across the republic. This is the second of the great challenges facing the new president. This effort requires educational and economic opportunities as well as a campaign to attract Armenians to move to this beautiful land. We trust that the new president will lead such a campaign.

Creating economic opportunities is the third of the great challenges facing Mr. Sahakian. Good administration and avoiding corrupt practices is the president's role and responsibility.

But Armenian-Americans have an essential role and responsibility as well.

Many of us are in a position to help bring income and investment to Karabakh. Some Armenian-Americans will visit Karabakh; others will invest directly in the country; others will arrange meetings between Karabakh officials and foreign business leaders; yet others will organize or attend events - commercial, cultural, athletic, academic, and political - in the republic. Each of these steps, and others, will help Karabakh realize its potential and flourish.

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The right of the people to determine their own destiny, the right to self-determination, has been the cornerstone of Karabakh's successful independence movement. It is a right the people of Karabakh take very seriously. Some newly formed states founder in their stated commitment to democracy. Not so Karabakh, to the enormous credit of its people, its war veterans, and its elected leaders.

The secretariat of the Council of Europe and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (the international mediators for the Karabakh conflict) have quite bizarrely criticized Karabakh for holding elections.

"What am I supposed to do?" asked an exasperated President Ghoukasian on Election Day. "Become a Turkmenbashi and rule for fifty years?" he said referring to the late President for Life of Turkmenistan.

"It arouses regret that the representatives of the Council of Europe - the organization which is intended to protect and propagate the ideals and principles of pluralistic democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law by means of integrative processes - should censure the holding of elections," Karabakh's foreign minister, Georgi Petrosian quite reasonably noted.

He added: "If European officials don't want to contribute to the democratic processes in the NKR, then we have the right to expect that they, at least, won't impede the strengthening of democratic institutes in our republic. We are deeply convinced that the democratization is an important precondition for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, since democracy presupposes the creation of mechanisms that allow solving any conflict exclusively in a peaceful way. That is what the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is striving for. It would be natural if the representatives of various European structures shared this aspiration."

It is sad that the leaders of Europe and the representatives of France, Russia, and the United States who co-chair the Minsk Group need Karabakh officials to remind them of the importance of democracy - just as it is pleasing that Karabakh has earned that right through its steadfast commitment to democracy.

And it is not only logic that dictates that Karabakh should hold elections. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right of people to vote no matter "the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."

As we welcome Bako Sahakian to the presidency, we also thank Arkady Ghoukassian for his ten years' stewardship of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Let us give Mr. Ghoukassian the last word on this matter: "We hold elections not for the international community, but first of all for ourselves, to make the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic democratic and thus realize the goals our people set forth in declaring independence."