On April 20, Council of City and County of Honolulu, state of Hawaii, adopted a resolution 16-78, CD1, encouraging and supporting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic s continuing efforts to guarantee its citizens those rights inherent in a free and independent society and urging the president and congress of the united states to support the international community’s efforts to reach a just and lasting solution to security issues in the South Caucasus region.

WHEREAS, Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a land-locked region in the South Caucasus that historically has been Armenian territory and is populated by an ethnic Armenian majority; and

WHEREAS, in 1921, the region was severed from Armenia and placed under the Soviet Azerbaijani administration as the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region; and

WHEREAS, February 20,1988, marked the beginning of the national liberation movement in Nagorno-Karabakh, as the elected legislature representing the people of Nagorno-Karabakh adopted a resolution returning Nagorno-Karabakh to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia; and

WHEREAS, on September 2,1991, in accordance with its enacted law, the legislature of Nagorno-Karabakh declared formation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic; and

WHEREAS, on December 10,1991, the people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic voted in favor of independence, and on January 6,1992, the democratically elected legislature of the republic formally declared independence; and

WHEREAS, since proclaiming independence, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has built a democratic nation with a free-market-oriented economy and a vibrant civil society that has held presidential and parliamentary elections that have been assessed by nongovernmental international monitors as free and fair; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu that it encourages and supports the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s continuing efforts to guarantee its citizens those rights inherent in a free and independent society; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council urges the President and Congress of the United States to support the international community’s efforts to reach a just and lasting solution to security issues in the strategically important South Caucasus region; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.