The Democratic Party of Artsakh ( hy, Արցախի ժողովրդավարական կուսակցություն; DPA, ''ԱԺԿ'') is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in the

Republic of Artsakh Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh () or the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (),, is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Artsakh controls a part of the former ...

. It was founded on 30 January 2005. Before that, in 2000–2005 there was an acting socio-political organization called the "Democratic Artsakh Union". The Chairman of the party is Ashot Ghoulyan who is also the President of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

. Following the results of the parliamentary elections of 19 June 2005, DPA won the most electoral votes and formed the "Democracy" faction in the National Assembly. As a result of the elections to the National Assembly of the 5th convocation, the faction was reformed with 10 members. After the Parliamentary elections of 3 May 2015, Democratic Party of Artsakh reformed its faction with 6 members (4 MPs were elected by a proportional system, 2 MPs by a majoritarian system).

Ideology

According to its website, the DPA stands for the values of stability, establishing a powerful state, improving

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...

, civil society, human rights and personal freedom and protection, family, work, and social justice, as well as the preservation of the national culture. Political pragmatism is practised whenever possible.

Program

The main goals of the DPA are: * to build a legal state where the rights of a person to live a free, safe, prosperous and dignified life are ensured; * to strengthen of independent statehood, creation of a powerful, civilized state, enrichment and preservation of national identity; * to build a civil society guided by national values, based on social solidarity, justice, tolerance and partnerships In regards to the settlement of the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...

, the party states in its charter that it supports "the reinstatement of the right of the people of the NKR to self-determination through the peaceful negotiations within the borders and with a security system acceptable to them."

Electoral record

Parliamentary election results:

Foreign relations

On 17 April 2015, the Democratic Party of Artsakh was elected as an associate member of the

European Free Alliance The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and ethnic minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, ...

. On 2 September 2015, the DPA leader Ashot Ghoulyan and European Free Alliance president François Alfonsi signed a Declaration on Cooperation in Stepanakert.

References

{{Members of the European Free Alliance

External links