Member of Canadian parliament and Jim Karygiannis issued a statement on the 25th Anniversary of the Freedom Movement in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). The statement is as follows:

“February 20, 2013, marks the 25th Anniversary of the birth of the movement that led to the liberation of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

On that day in 1988, the legislature of Nagorno Karabakh appealed to the administrations of the Armenian and Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republics for a peaceful transfer of Nagorno Karabakh from Soviet Azerbaijan’s administrative rule to that of Armenia. A week later, a wave of anti-Armenian pogroms took place in Sumgayit, the second largest Azeri town. Dozens of people were tortured and murdered just for being Armenians. Such atrocities also occurred in Baku, Azerbaijan.

As the Soviet Union collapsed, the newly-independent Azerbaijan launched a full-scale war against Nagorno Karabakh. In May 1994, following the bloody conflict, Azerbaijan signed a cease-fire agreement with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Today, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a de facto independent, democratic and fully functioning state, with a thriving market economy and a dynamic civil society, which is working toward entrenching its freedom and the formal recognition of its independence.

In July 2012, I led a team of Canadian Election Observers for the Presidential Election in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. It was a picture perfect election from start to finish and witnessing the election process in a new democracy was a positive learning experience.”