STEPANAKERT. -- The allegations contained in the statement of the NGO registered in Azerbaijan as “The Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno Karabakh” contradict the common sense, stated Chairman of the Public Organization of NKR Refugees Sarasar Saryan, commenting on the statement of the abovementioned Azerbaijani organization, at the request of the correspondent of Armenia News - NEWS.am.

A campaign against the elections held in the NKR has been recently launched in Azerbaijan to slander any democratic processes in the Republic. Within this campaign, the so-called Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh has issued a statement condemning the upcoming elections to local self-government bodies in the NKR and noting, in particular, the illegality of the elections, due to the Azerbaijanis’ non-participation in them.

“Following the logic of this statement, all the elections held in Azerbaijan after the 1990s should be similarly classified as illegal, since these elections also didn’t take into account the voting rights of about 500,000 Armenians of Azerbaijan, who were subjected to massacre and ethnic cleansing in 1988-1990.

I would also like to remind that during the referendum on the independence of the NKR in 1991, corresponding conditions were created for the participation of the entire population of the NKR, including the Azerbaijanis living in the Republic. Unfortunately, they did not take advantage of their rights and, instead, took an active part in the aggression of the Azerbaijani authorities against the NKR people,” stressed Sarasar Saryan.