YEREVAN. – The history of the third Republic of Armenia does not commence on the day when the country achieved formal independence in 1991, but rather in February 1988, when the people stood up for their rights, together with the Karabakh Committee, Public Council Chairman and Karabakh Committee member Vazgen Manukyan stated during a press conference on Wednesday.  

Manukyan said the Karabakh movement was very crucial and decisive for the Armenian nation. He recalled that in those days he had announced for the first time that, “We [that is, the Armenians] do not have an eternal friend and an eternal enemy; instead, we have an eternal interest of the Armenian nation.”     

“The great accomplishment of the movement was independence, [and] the triumph at the Karabakh war. But we fell into the wrong electoral cycle ever since 1995. [But] I believe the people will oversee the course of the elections in the votes to come,” Vazgen Manukyan said.     

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am