YEREVAN. – The British “Conciliation Resources” organization’s Caucasus Projects Manager Laurence Broers spoke to 168 Zham daily.     

“Speaking about the state of democracy in Nagorno-Karabakh [Republic (NKR)] and the Karabakh problem, the political scientist noted that a peace accord with Azerbaijan is impossible without the establishment of respective institutes.

‘It is difficult to imagine simply peace, or Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement, without democratic developments,’ he said. 

The English political scientist also expressed a view that there is certain positive prospect in NKR. 

‘Elections are held in NKR regularly, and the presidents there are changed by way of voting, which we sometimes do not see in some de jure states of the region’ 

[But] At the same time he noted: ‘NKR still has serious challenges ahead, in terms of domestic diversity and creating a real political pluralism.’  

And with respect to the ‘displaced’ Azerbaijanis’ not participating in the Karabakh elections, he said:

‘If the displaced Azerbaijanis are excluded from these elections, that is not any worse than excluding from Azerbaijan’s elections those Armenians who were displaced from Baku, Gyanja, and Azerbaijan’s other dwelling places,’” 168 Zham writes.