Nagorny Karabakh elects ‘parliament’

YEREVAN, May 3, (AFP): Residents of Azerbaijan’s separatist region of Nagorny Karabakh went to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament in a vote denounced as illegitimate by Baku and the European Union.

For over two decades, the Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute over the territory — which no country recognises as independent — is a major source of tension in the strategic South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

“All polling stations opened at 8:00 am (GMT 0400). Elections are under way,” Leonid Martirosyan, spokesman for Karabakh’s central elections commission, told AFP.