Last Act of Sacrifice for Artsakh: Levon Zurabyan

Levon Zurabyan, Vice President of the Armenian National Congress, writes: “On September 2, 1991, the Parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh declared the independence of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan responded with war, involving both Artsakh and Armenia in the conflict. In this war, which was imposed on the Armenian people, the Armenian nation achieved a great victory in 1994, repulsing Azerbaijan's aggression. The negotiations that took place after the ceasefire culminated in the presentation of a phased peace settlement plan by the Minsk Group in 1997, which was accepted by Armenia and Azerbaijan but rejected by Nagorno-Karabakh.

Unfortunately, since 1997, the arrogance shown by Armenian leaders, and starting in 2018, the reckless and ignorant adventurism, if not treasonous servility, gradually led to the destruction of Artsakh and to the genocidal ethnic cleansing of its people. For this, apart from Azerbaijan, Nikol Pashinyan is also directly responsible, who stated on August 23 of this year that he rejected the resolution of the Artsakh issue in order to achieve peace with Azerbaijan and dialogue with Turkey.

The last act of sacrifice for Artsakh was the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, a joint effort by Pashinyan and Aliyev, which definitively removed the Artsakh issue from the agenda of international politics. Today, I extend my bitter congratulations to the people of Artsakh, to those defending the return to their historical homeland, and a condemnation to all leaders who have thwarted the resolution of the Artsakh issue,” writes Zurabyan.