DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Feb 20 2008
NAGORNO-KARABAKH PEOPLE READY TO CONTINUE DEMOCRATIC STATE’S
CONSTRUCTION
YEREVAN, 20.02.08. DE FACTO. Today the whole Nagorno-Karabakh
celebrates the 20th jubilee of the Artsakh national-liberation
movement.
The festivities started with a rally held at the Stepanakert central
square – the Revival Square, where the original reconstruction of
historic events of twenty years’ prescription took place. On February
20, 1988 the joint session of the Council of People’s deputies of
NKAR and Shahumian region made a decision on petition before the USSR
Supreme Soviet concerning transmission of Armenian autonomous region
>From Azerbaijani SSR to Armenian SSR. This day commenced a new stage
of the Karabakh national liberation movement, which resulted in
declaring independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in September of 1991.
The rally’s participants reaffirmed the correctness of the path
Nagorno-Karabakh people have chosen. They expressed readiness to
defend the achievements of the past 20 years and continue struggle
for the achievement of international recognition of NKR’s de facto
statehood. A statement of the NKR National Assembly was promulgated
in the course of the rally and met with all the participants’
approval. The statement’s authors underscore the Nagorno-Karabakh
people’s readiness to continue the construction of a democratic state
and formation of civil society, to settle the conflict with
Azerbaijan exclusively via talks.
On February 19 a solemn meeting devoted to a memorable date – the
20th anniversary of the Artsakh national-liberation movement – was
held in Stepanakert. The NKR National Assembly Chair made a report at
the meeting. He noted Azerbaijan’s discriminatory policy was targeted
at the native Armenian population’s eviction, which made Karabakh
movement inevitable. According to Ashot Gulian, on February 20, 1988
`the Nagorno-Karabakh people stated to the whole world that ten years
ago they had been deprived of the right to be independent arbiters of
their own destiny’.