On February 20, 1988 the Regional Council of People’s Deputies of the Autonomous Republic of Nagorno Karabakh convened a special sitting, where it took a historic decision to apply to the Supreme Councils of the Azerbaijan SSR, the Armenian SSR and the USSR to solve the issue of Karabakh’s secession from Azerbaijani SSR and its transfer to Armenian SSR. It was on this day 27 years ago that the Artsakh Movement started.
1988 marked the beginning of a new stage of revolt against injustice. In a short while the Karabakh Movement grew into Armenian Pan-National Movement, one of the achievements of which was the proclamation of independence of the Republic of Armenia in 1991.
The Artsakh Movement became the symbol of unity of our people, but, unfortunately, the rise was to be followed by a fall.
Artsakh Hero, General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan says “Armenia and Artsakh managed to unite efforts in the struggle against the enemy, but the guys that fought shoulder-to-shoulder, started struggling against each other.” “The Movement grew into an inter-party struggle. There were serious discrepancies between the Armenian authorities and Artsakh,” he says.
“The Armenian leadership, which had to support us on every matter, was against military actions. All people in power were certainly patriots, but their policy was targeted at leaving Karabakh under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, something Artsakh would never reconcile with,” Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan says.
The General says that unfortunately, our struggle of national unity did not escape big mistakes and he regrets the time lost.
Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan does not believe we’ll see the logical conclusion of the Artsakkh Movement – the international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic – in the near future.
“Fortunately, the international community is coming to understand what Artsakh os, but we have a long way to pass, as the smell of Azerbaijani oil and petrodollars still diverts attention from the truth,” the General says.
