Election officials in the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh say the former head of the region's security service has been elected president.

The presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-proclaimed republic in Azerbaijan, can be considered valid now that 25% of those eligible to vote have done so, the region's central election commission said Thursday.

There are five candidates officially running for president of Nagorno-Karabakh. Most observers say only one has any real chance of winning.

On July 19, voters in the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will elect a successor to Arkady Ghukasian, the former foreign minister who has served two successive presidential terms since 1997, when his predecessor Robert Kocharian was named Armenian prime minister.

The President of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev while conducting negotiations with neighborhing Armenia more often has started using the language of threat and force. This is never productive if Mr. Aliyev wants to reach some tangible results. The humanity clearly learned in the past 5 years and by looking back to the history that military force has never and will never achieve lasting peace or occupation.