Artsakh foreign ministry: Karabakh movement was a struggle for the sake of historical justice, preservation of national identity and dignity

YEREVAN, February 20. /ARKA/. “The Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) national liberation struggle is one of the most important pages in the history of the Armenian people," the Artsakh Foreign Ministry said today in a statement issued on the occasion of the Artsakh Revival Day.

'The Karabakh movement was a struggle for the sake of historical justice, preservation of national identity and dignity, civil rights and human values, for the right to live and create freely in historical homeland, ” the statement said.

The statement notes that in response to the democratic, peaceful and legal expression of the will of the Armenians of Artsakh, Azerbaijan tried to intimidate the Artsakh people through threats and violence and force them to abandon the very idea of ​​realizing their primordial rights.

“In Sumgait, Baku and other Azerbaijani cities, where a large number of Armenians lived, as well as in the settlements of Northern Artsakh, the Azerbaijani authorities organized genocide, pogroms and mass deportations of the Armenian population. Thousands of people were killed and wounded, more than half a million Armenians became refugees. The civilian population of Artsakh also became the target of Azerbaijan's large-scale military aggression,” the statement says.

The statement emphasizes that the Armenians of Artsakh, however, were able to consolidate and, with the support of the world Armenian Diaspora, defend their right to live freely in their historical homeland and build an independent statehood - the Republic of Artsakh.

The Foreign Ministry stated that the armed aggression unleashed against Artsakh on September 27, 2020, which was accompanied by numerous war crimes, gross violations of international humanitarian law and significant human losses, was another attempt by the Azerbaijani authorities to suppress the inalienable right of the Artsakh people to self-determination.

“Despite all these difficult trials, Artsakh has survived. On this symbolic day, we bow before the defenders of the Motherland and the devoted sons of the Armenian people with deep respect, we appeal to the memory of all our fallen soldiers. Long live free and independent Artsakh!, ” the statement underlines.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by a successful referendum.

On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year.

In the early hours of April 2, 2016 Azerbaijan, in gross violation of the agreements launched a large-scale offensive along the entire Line of Contact between the armed forces of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan, using heavy weaponry, artillery and combat aircraft. Only thanks to the decisive actions of the Defense Army, which gave a fitting rebuff, on April 5, Azerbaijan was forced to ask, as in 1994, through the mediation of the Russian Federation for the cessation of the hostilities. It has been generally maintained, despite the recurrent violations by the Azerbaijani side.

On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and  phosphorus weapons.

After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the parties stopped at where they were at that time. The town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia. 

A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to Karabakh and adjacent regions, prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead are being exchanged.--0-