ArmInfo. The Committee for the Preservation of Artsakh responded to the statement of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on April 16 that "the Karabakh movement will not continue in Armenia", assessing it as another manifestation of a policy directed against the interests of the state and the people.
The statement of the Committee received by ArmInfo notes that such approaches seriously threaten the security, sovereignty and state continuity of not only Artsakh, but also the entire Republic of Armenia.
The Committee recalled that the Karabakh movement was, in fact, a national liberation movement aimed not only at the liberation of Artsakh, but also at the restoration of the historical rights of the Armenian people and the strengthening of its unity. "Thus, such statements and political course distort the historical truth, since the Karabakh movement is not a short-term political action, but a process of national resistance and the realization of the right to self-determination. Refusal of this struggle is tantamount to denying one's own history.
They make international rights invisible, since no one has abolished the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination. Declaring the page closed actually means refusing to protect this right in the international arena. They divide the unity of the Armenian people, since such statements draw a deep dividing line between the Armenians of Armenia and Artsakh. Artsakh is Armenia, and by rejecting the Karabakh movement, you reject our united pan-Armenian struggle," the statement says.
The Committee for the Preservation of Artsakh emphasized that the values of the Karabakh movement remain relevant and vital, regardless of the temporary statements of the political authorities.
"We continue to defend the rights, security and dignity of the people of Artsakh. We call on the Armenian authorities to reconsider their position and realize that national and state interests cannot be converted into short-term political benefits. We call on the Armenian authorities to reconsider this dangerous position, realizing that sacrificing national and state interests under the guise of political flexibility is fraught with irreversible consequences for both state security and historical responsibility," the statement of the Artsakh Preservation Committee reads.
The Karabakh movement is a public movement in support of the demand of the Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region to transfer the region from the Azerbaijan SSR to the Armenian SSR. It originated in the late 80s of the last century and laid the foundation for the separation of Artsakh from the Azerbaijan SSR and the declaration of independence.