Karabagh Celebrates 20th Anniversary Of Declaration of Independence

32
0

STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL) — President Serge Sargisian led thousands of people on Friday in a march through Stepanakert that marked the 20th anniversary of Nagorno-Karabagh’s declaration of independence from Azerbaijan.

The crowd, also comprising Catholicos Karekin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and Karabagh’s entire political leadership, gathered in the main town square and marched to a monument to the victims of the 1991- 1994 war with Azerbaijan.

Sargisian and the other dignitaries laid flowers at the memorial and an adjacent cemetery where hundreds of Karabagh Armenians killed in the fighting were laid to rest. A Karabagh honor guard marched there during the ceremony in tribute to the dead.

The bitter war, which left an estimated 30,000 people dead on both sides, began three months after the legislative council of the former Nagorno-Karabagh Autonomous Oblast declared the mostly Armenian-populated territory an independent republic on September 2, 1991.

Official celebrations of the anniversary began on Thursday, with Nagorno Karabagh President Bako Sahakian handing awards to military personnel and other local residents. Sargisian attended and delivered a speech at the ceremony.

“Tomorrow is a blissful day not only for Artsakh (Karabagh) but for the entire Armenian nation,” he said. “It’s a holiday of human and national liberty; it’s a holiday of human and national dignity; it’s a holiday of restoration for once abused human rights; it’s a holiday of victory for historic justice.” “Once Artsakh was Armenian pain, today it is Armenian pride,” he added. “The Republic of Nagorno Karabagh is an established state with all essential structures.”

Get the Mirror in your inbox:

Sargisian, who commanded Karabagh’s Armenian forces in 1991-1993, contended that the disputed region’s population would have “perished” had it not defeated, with Armenia’s substantial help, the Azerbaijani army. “We chose life, and today we celebrate the victory of life over death,” he said.

The Karabagh-born president further reiterated that Armenians would never agree to any settlement of the Karabagh conflict that would place the territory back under Azerbaijani control.

“Whatever was possible in 1923 is not possible in the 21st century,” he said, referring to Karabagh’s incorporation into Soviet Azerbaijan. Sargisian and his predecessor, Robert Kocharian, also a native of Karabagh, expressed confidence earlier this week that the international community will eventually recognize Karabagh’s secession from Azerbaijan.

Despite championing such recognition, both men have long resisted calls by some Armenian opposition groups for Armenia to formally recognize Karabagh as an independent state. They believe that the unilateral move would seriously complicate a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Kocharian, who governed Armenia from 1998-2008, also took part in the Stepanakert march. He declined a comment when approached by an RFE/RL correspondent. Also attending the celebrations were other prominent Karabagh Armenians holding high-level government positions in Yerevan. One of them, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian, held up Karabagh society as a model for Armenia.

“In Artsakh, there is virtually no gap between the rulers and the people and such an exemplary society that can also be developed in the Republic of Armenia,” Ohanian said.

“Karabagh has moral, historical and legal grounds to have its independence recognized by the world,” said Arkady Ghukasian, a former Karabagh president who now works as a senior diplomatic adviser to Sargisian.

Get the Mirror-Spectator Weekly in your inbox: