YEREVAN. – We didn’t have independence 21 years ago, but we had a holiday, and we have a holiday 21 years later, but we don’t have independence, former Karabakh Committee member Ashot Manucharyan stated during a press conference on Friday. 

Yet he advised no to worry because if there is a problem, there also is a chance to surmount it. In his words, a man is a man to the extent that he is free.  

“Since we are an astonishing people, we first became free and then independent. But the opposite occurs with the [other] people,” Manucharyan noted.      

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, Friday, September 21, 2012 is the 21st anniversary of Armenia’s independence.

The declaration of Armenia’s independence was adopted on August 23, 1990, and during session of the country’s then Supreme Council.  

And on September 21, 1991 a referendum was held to decide upon seceding from the ex-USSR and declaring independence. As a result, 2,050,000 people—or 94.99 percent of the total number of voters—said “yes” to independence. Solely 10,000 people voted against it. 

And two days thereafter, the Supreme Council declared Armenia an independent and a sovereign state.   

Photo by Sona Barseghyan