On November 9, an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh was convened, chaired by the head of parliament, Artur Tovmasyan.
On the agenda was the discussion of a single issue: the National Assembly’s declaration “On the Inalienable Right of the People of Artsakh to Live Free and Independent.”
Before proceeding to the agenda item, National Assembly President Artur Tovmasyan addressed the occasion of the day’s anniversary, emphasizing the cruel and treacherous aims Azerbaijan had displayed in the three Artsakh wars, the undeniable heroism of the devotees of the homeland, and the testament they left behind: “The testament left by all of them is perhaps one: to live, to create, to grow strong on this land. Therefore, we must overcome that pain by living, and by living strengthen our homeland, so that the name and deeds of our heroes may live forever.”
Those present honoured the memory of the Armenian sons martyred in all the Artsakh wars with a minute of silence, standing.
In his speech, the head of parliament condemned the previous day’s, November 8, latest provocative and criminal action by the Azerbaijani side, directed against the civilian population.
The parliament unanimously adopted the National Assembly’s declaration “On the Inalienable Right of the People of Artsakh to Live Free and Independent.” We present the declaration in full below.
DECLARATION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH ON THE INALIENABLE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE OF ARTSAKH TO LIVE FREE AND INDEPENDENT
In the autumn of 2020, Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey and international terrorist groups, disregarding the fundamental principles of international law, committed aggression against the Republic of Artsakh and, as a result of a 44-day war, forcibly seized a large part of the republic’s territory.
Owing to the forced displacement of the population of Artsakh from their historic homeland, thousands of families have been dispossessed and rendered homeless, and hundreds of national-cultural and Christian monuments and memorials have been destroyed and desecrated.
A year ago, on November 9, the ceasefire established in the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict zone through the mediation of the President of the Russian Federation halted the bloodshed. Nevertheless, it is our deep conviction that the threat to the physical security of the people of Artsakh can be prevented, and lasting peace among the peoples living in the region can be established, only in the case of the restoration of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Artsakh, the return of our captive compatriots and forcibly displaced persons to their native hearths, and the settlement of the conflict on the basis of the right of peoples to self-determination.
We call upon the international community, in the person of the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, to take urgent steps to resume the negotiation process with the participation of the Artsakh authorities and to ensure a comprehensive solution to the issue.
Invoking the memory of all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the homeland, and recording the legitimacy of the declaration of Artsakh’s sovereignty and the processes that followed it, and their conformity with international and domestic legal norms, the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh, as the highest representative body, reaffirms the commitment undertaken in 1988 to preserve a free and independent Artsakh, and the determination of the people of the Republic of Artsakh to defend their right to live and create freely in their native land.
