Artsakh is firmly following the path it has taken, consistently developing its statehood based on democratic values as the most important guarantee of the freedom and security of its people, the Artsakh Foreign Ministry said on Artsakh Revival Day.
On February 20, 1988, 32 years ago, an extraordinary session of the 20th convocation Council
of People’s Deputies of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast took a
decision to appeal to the Supreme Soviets of the Azerbaijani Soviet
Socialist Republic and the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
for considering the issue of transferring the NKAO from the
structure of the Azerbaijan SSR to the structure of the Armenian SSR.
“This historic decision marked the beginning of a new
stage of the national-liberation struggle of the Armenians of Artsakh – the
Karabakh Movement. It was a truly democratic movement, a struggle for civil
rights, national identity, economic equality and dignified life. From the very
beginning, the Karabakh Movement was peaceful and embodied the aspiration of
the people of Artsakh to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination
by using the operating legal mechanisms,” the Foreign Ministry
said.
“The response of Baku to the legitimate demand of the
Armenians of Artsakh was its refusal of political dialogue and bloody crimes
against the Armenian population of the Azerbaijani SSR. In an attempt to
intimidate the people of Artsakh by force, the Azerbaijani authorities launched
ethnic cleansing in Sumgait, Baku, and other Armenian-populated cities of
Azerbaijan, as well as in the settlements of Northern Artsakh, which
subsequently grew into large-scale military aggression against the civilian
population of Artsakh,” the statement reads.
However, the Ministry said, “Armenians of Artsakh united in the imposed war and
succeeded in defending their right to live freely in their historic homeland
and with the support of all Armenians creating an independent state – the
Republic of Artsakh.”
“Today, Artsakh is firmly following the path it has taken,
consistently developing its statehood based on democratic values as the most
important guarantee of the freedom and security of its people,”
the Foreign Ministry concluded.