The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the UN informs, that the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the NKR on the occasion of the triple holidays in May has been presented to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and member states of the General Assembly. In the statement it is, particularly, noted.

“May 9 is a triple holiday for the people of Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh). On this day, the people of Artsakh, along with other nations, celebrate national unity, solidarity and freedom brought by the end of the World War II.

Though small in numbers, the Armenians of Artsakh had a significant role in the victory over fascism. The history of World War II holds sacred the names of three marshals, one admiral, twenty-four generals, twenty-eight Heroes of the USSR, seven servicemen awarded as Cavaliers of the Order of Glory and many high-ranking officers born in Artsakh.

On May 9, the people of Artsakh also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Shushi.

In XVIII-XIX centuries, Shushi was shaped and developed as one of the cultural and spiritual centers for Armenians. However, in the beginning of the XX century, the town was destroyed and set on fire by the armed units of Azerbaijan, which in the aforementioned time had for the first time in history appeared on the world map as a state. In the late 1980s, the last Armenian families left Shushi, in order not to share the same fate with the Armenians massacred in Sumgait and other towns in Azerbaijan.

In early 1990s Shushi, which is located on the heights neighboring Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, became a stronghold of the aggression of Azerbaijan, and particularly one of Azerbaijan’s main military positions established for shelling Stepanakert.

Stepanakert became the target of three to four hundred missiles launched daily from Shushi, which forced the population of the town to seek shelter underground, caused hundreds of casualties and deaths and left half of the town in ruins.

The attitude of Azerbaijan towards the Armenian population of Shushi and the Armenian heritage of the town is best illustrated by the fact that the centuries-old Saint Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was turned by the Azerbaijani forces into a warehouse for missiles fired at the Armenian population.

The people of Artsakh besieged by the Azeri forces were on the brink of extermination. On that fateful moment, after a military action undertaken by the forces of self-defense of Artsakh, on May 9, 1992 the Azerbaijani forces left the town. With the following steps, the people of Artsakh established a land corridor linking with Armenia, which became known as the “Road of Life.”

May 9th is also the day when the Nagorno Karabakh Republic celebrates the anniversary of the establishment of the Defense Army of NKR which signifies the will of the people to defend their honor, security and freedom. For that very reason, every year on that day, the people of Artsakh urges to learn the lessons of the past and stay true to the principles of peaceful coexistence and nonviolent resolution of conflicts in the world.

The concerns and complaints of Azerbaijan regarding the military parade dedicated to the Victory Day in NKR are preposterous: Azerbaijan responded to the realization of the will of the people Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination with ethnic cleansings in the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh and in Karabakh proper; Azerbaijan unleashed a wide-scale military aggression against the people of Artsakh, involving thousands of mercenaries closely linked to notorious international terrorist networks. As a result of the military aggression of Azerbaijan against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, which fulfilled its right to self-determination, some territories of NKR still remain under the occupation of Azerbaijan. Moreover, provocations and acts of subversion by Azerbaijan on the Azerbaijani-Karabakhi line of contact are taking place almost daily.

Meanwhile, official Baku is continuously issuing belligerent statements with direct threats addressed to the people of Nagorno Karabakh, “forgetting” about the 1994 cease-fire agreement signed by the representatives of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

Only during the last seven years Azerbaijan has increased its military spending twenty times, violating along the way all acceptable limits stipulated by the international armament treaties. Hence, the Azerbaijani authorities are solely responsible for the militarization of the region; their militaristic policies are threatening the stability in the region.

The extremely racist propaganda and undisguised war threats of Azerbaijan are unacceptable and the people of Artsakh is resolute in further strengthening their independent statehood based on democratic values.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic states that the Republic of Azerbaijan is responsible for turning its initially taken power-based stance towards the NK issue into a military conflict and through continuing of this policy Azerbaijan has undermined the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakhi conflict.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic calls upon the international community to react adequately to the behavior of Azerbaijan which is in a blatant violation of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act in order to avert another possible adventure by Azerbaijan endangering the stability in the region.”

Next week the statement of the MFA of the NKR will be officially circulated as UN Security Council and General Assembly documents.