Breakaway Nagorny Karabakh elects new parliament

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 West. For over two decades, the Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute over the territory - which no country recognises as independent - has been a major source of tension in the strategic South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.
The dispute is rooted in a bloody war in the early 1990s following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenian separatists seized control of Karabakh and several other regions of Azerbaijan during the conflict that left some 30,000 dead.
While Yerevan does not recognise Nagorny Karabakh's independence claim, Armenia and rebel leaders pledged the elections would be free and fair, insisting that they were being held in line with international standards.
"Holding elections in Nagorny Karabakh proves the high level of democracy there," Armenian foreign ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told.