Nagorno-Karabakh poll: People want ceasefire consolidation

The European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA, www.EuFoA.org) published today the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) poll of the first ever internationally conducted Comparative Opinion Polls in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh on Socio-Political Issues and Foreign Relations. Like in Armenia, the poll contains questions about NK’s internal situation, Turkey, the NK conflict, the EU, the OSCE and other international players relevant for Armenia.

“Our data suggests that people in NK clearly want peace, but following a list of historic and recent events, they have little trust in most international organisations and countries. We were surprised by how clearly they favour a ceasefire consolidation, removing snipers from both sides of the line of contact and installing international observers. People in NK see that this would avoid casualties, reduce the likelihood of war and facilitate the peace negotiations, all of which they apparently rate higher than their potential fears about removing their snipers or mistrusting the observers. This data means homework for the OSCE and other European institutions” commented Dr Michael Kambeck, Secretary General of EuFoA.

“This poll was conducted according to the very highest standards, both in the methodology and data collection and in the quality control processes. There are many interesting findings in the data which may spark debate among politically interested stakeholders, but we feel that such an independent poll is an important enrichment for decision makers and the public in Armenia and abroad”, added Andrew Cooper, CEO of the UK based opinion polling company Populus (www.populus.co.uk).
Hovhannes Grigoryan, CEO of IPSC (Institute for Political and Sociological Consulting, www.ipsc.am), the Armenian partner for this survey, concluded: “The first poll of this kind conducted in NK has revealed some remarkable social differences. The Karabakhi society shows a much higher level of integration and consolidation. The key concerns are peace and security, which are ranked higher than economic prosperity or social justice. Notably, the level of democracy is ranked higher than in Armenia and the level of corruption is perceived to be lower.”

The fieldwork for this poll was carried out on October 22 -26, 2010, comprised 804 face-to-face interviews in Stepanakert and in the five regions of Askeran, Hadrut, Martakert, Martuni and Shushi of Nagorno-Karabakh. It has an error margin of 3.45%.