Freedom House included Nagorno-Karabakh into the list of “partially free countries”

International human rights organization Freedom House issued its annual report on the situation with democracy and human rights in the world in which Nagorno-Karabakh was removed from the list of constrained countries and recognized partially free.

Earlier, Freedom House assigned the republic the status of a “constrained” country.

Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement running that the main reason for the rise of the republic’s rating was the fifth competitive presidential election held in July of 2012.

According to Chairman of Public Council for foreign policy and security Masis Mailyan, the “rise of the rating had been expected and could be only greeted”. Mailyan considers that the republic’s former status was re-established thanks to alternative candidate Vitaly Balasanyan’s participation in the election.

“The factor of competitive presidential election certainly played its role for electoral processes in any country defines the extent of its openness and democracy. In 2010 parliamentary election which was also free and competitive was held in NKR, however, the Parliament became a unipolar one which became the reason for us to be considered a constrained country”, Chairman of Permanent commission for external relations of the Parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh Vagram Atanesyan said.