YEREVAN, May 24 (Reuters) - Pro-independence parties won most seats in elections to the new parliament of Azerbaijan's breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials said on May 24.
The Sunday polls were denounced by Azerbaijan as illegal and a "new election farce in the occupied territories". The region, populated by ethnic Armenians, proclaimed independence after a war in the early 1990s in which it was backed by Armenia.
The election came a month after the collapse of a plan to improve the frosty relations between Armenia and Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, and ease tension in the south Caucasus.
Most candidates and parties called for independence for Nagorno-Karabakh, while some want the region to become part of Armenia.
"The election was very important for … the recognition of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and its integration into a democratic and civilised world," a spokesman for President Bako Sahakyan told Reuters by phone from the region’s capital Stepanakert.
The Free Motherland party, led by the region’s prime minister Ara Harutiunyan, received 46 percent of the vote and the pro-government Democratic Party of Artsakh 30 percent.
The Dashnaktsutsiun party, which favours union with Armenia, won 22 percent.
First results showed the opposition Communists had not cleared the six percent threshold to get into the parliament.
Parties will get 17 out of a total of 33 seats in the legislature, while the rest will be distributed to candidates elected in a single-mandate constituences.
THREAT OF WAR
Azerbaijan wants Nagorno-Karabakh back, and does not rule out using force. More than 15 years of mediation have failed to produce a final peace deal and the threat of war is never far away in a key energy transit region to the West.
Turkey, Azerbaijan’s energy trading partner, closed the border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with its ally.
The breakaway region has seen an increase in tension since Armenia and Turkey announced a rapprochement last year. Azerbaijan feared its interest in Nagorno-Karabakh would be sacrificed as part of a strategic deal.
The accord crumbled last month, when Armenia suspended its ratification following Turkish demands that it first reach terms over Nagorno-Karabakh — a condition Turkey set to appease Azerbaijan, an oil and gas producer which hosts oil majors including BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron.
In a move likely to irk Azerbaijan, Armenia said the poll in the rebel region was an example of a "determined and free expression of popular will".
"Citizens of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic proved once again their desire to live in a free and independent society," Edward Nalbandian, Armenian foreign minister, said in statement.
