The proclamation of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) as an independent republic was an important landmark for our future, a historian has said, remembering the developments that led to the country’s independence.

“September 2 marked the birth of the second Armenian republic. Artsakh proclaimed itself a republic much earlier than did the Republic of Armenia,” Edik Minasyan, the dean of the Yerevan State University’s History Department, told reporters at a news conference devoted to the 23rd anniversary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.

The historian remembered that the situation in Artsakh was extremely complicated in the early 1990’s, with Soviet Azerbaijan pursuing the policy of the Armenians’ deportation in collaboration with the USSR forces.

Minasyan noted that Azerbaijan proclaimed independence in the wake of a parliament decision adopted in August 1991. “The question should have been rapidly resolved under such circumstances, given especially that there were all the legal and historical conditions for declaring the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic an independent state. The USSR law allowed for that,” he explained.

The historian noted that Karabakh never before made part of the Azerbaijani republic, adding that the fact never prevented the latter from exercising violence against the former autonomous region.

He noted further that the proclamation of Karabakh was consistent with the norms and principles of international law, with the country subsequentluy electing a parliament and adopting its state flag, coat of arm and national anthem. “The defense of Artsakh and Armenia’s borders is in reliable hands today,” Minasyan said.