Stepanakert: rally demands international recognition of NKR

In Stepanakert, more than 30 veterans have gathered in the central square of the city to mark the 28^th anniversary of the first rally of activists of the national liberation movement. The participants of the gathering have voiced the demand to intensify the foreign policy of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

In February 1988, the Council of People's Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, which in the period of 1923-1991 was a part of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic and which was populated mainly by Armenians, adopted an appeal to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia.

In September 1991, the independent NKR was proclaimed, and in December, a referendum on independence was held. The international status of the NKR is not settled. Member States of the UN do not recognize the NKR as an independent state.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been told by Mavel Sargsyan, an activist of the national movement, the director of the Armenian Centre for National and International Studies, that weak activity of the NKR on the international arena adversely affects the process of international recognition.

"The whole initiative was given to Armenia, and in that sense, of course, it was followed by the lowering of the political role of the NKR. And we should not have accepted that, since that fact was the biggest mistake," Mavel Sargsyan has said. He has also added that the absence of full-fledged diplomatic mission of the NKR in the international arena delays its political development.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.