‘NKR: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE’ CONFERENCE HELD IN STEPANAKERT

Yerkir.am
June 23, 2006

"NKR: Past, Present, Future" international conference opened on June 21
at the Artsakh State University. The conference, dedicated to the 15th
anniversary of the Karabakh independence declaration, was attended by
about 200 representatives from over 10 countries, including Armenia,
France, United States, Russia, Germany and Great Britain.

The conference was held in three panels: history, culture,
political-legal and socio-economic.

NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan’s address to the conference

I have apprehended the news on the conduct of the international
conference dedicated to the 15th Anniversary of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic’s declaration with solid satisfaction. It again provides
ample evidence of our state’s existence.

Last fifteen years showed to the world that the Nagorno Karabakh people
are entitled to have the independent state of their own declared
pursuant to the former USSR’s legislation and the international
law’s basic rules. Although the NKR has not been recognized by the
international community yet, however, by the level of conformity to
the European society’s standards our Republic noticeably outstrips
Azerbaijan, which endeavored to dispose of the Nagorno Karabakh’s
Armenian population having enforced a war on us.

However, our nation has not only survived in an unequal sanguinary
armed confrontation, but it managed to mainly cure the war’s wounds,
stage an economic recovery, restore social sphere, inspire new life
to the region’s cultural and spiritual development.

An efficient army equipped with modern weaponry, which is the safest
guarantor of the security and prosperity of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic and our nation, has been formed in the NKR.

At present Azerbaijan exerts efforts to reverse history, deprive our
nation of freedom and independence gained at the cost of irreplaceable
losses. It is an unpromising way. I am convinced: the future is the
talks between the NKR and Azerbaijan on the search for the ways of the
problem’s advantageous solution and the establishment of cooperation
between the two states.

One is eager to believe that our conference will promote deeper
comprehension of the realities of the region, which is difficult to
imagine without the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s existence.

In this connection it is pleasant that you intend to discuss a wide
spectrum of issues referring both to the Nagorno Karabakh’s history and
culture, its spiritual heritage and to the legal aspects of the NKR’s
functioning, the outlooks of our country’s social-economic development.

Levon Mkrtchain: "Karabakh can claim its place in the family of
nations"

"Every nation lives and creates having the great goal of
independence. It should establish its own statehood on the territory of
its homeland and be able to defend it. This idea has been accompanying
our nation for centuries," Armenian Science and Education Minister
Levon Mkrtchian said in his speech at the ‘Nagorno Karabakh Republic:
Past, Present and Future’ conference held in Stepanakert.

"Many gave their lives to realize this goal, we have had irreversible
losses that we have to restore," he went on saying.

Mkrtchian also voiced the congratulations of the Armenian prime
minister.

"The international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
is important not only because of today’s political concepts, that
recognitions is the core of Armenia’s and Karabakh’s independence,"
Mkrtchian said.

"And we should realize that we should strengthen the first serious
success of our liberation movement. Such strengthening happens with
an every-day work and through strengthening and development of the
Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic."

He also said that holding an international conference in Karabakh
demonstrates that the state has been established and it can claim
its place in the family of nations.