STEPANAKERT. - I don’t agree with those who qualify the Karabakh conflict as a regional one, Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan stated at a press-conference held in Stepanakert Thursday. According to him, the conflict was born a century ago, during the World War I.

“Our homeland divided into parts, and in 1921 part of our homeland appeared within Azerbaijan,  an alien country which had suddenly emerged then,” Sahakyan said.

In his words, before the Artsakh Liberation Movement in 1988, the Armenian people and Artsakh Armenians didn’t come to terms with that forceful and illegal decision.  

“We tried to appeal that decision during 70 years. In those years we exerted lots of efforts to resume the historic justice. We failed to do that until the Liberation movement in 1988. When we got rid of the captivity thanks to that movement, according to universal values we remained committed to building a democratic state. And during this period we have received the high appreciation of the missions of different countries,” Sahakyan said.

He also noted that Karabakh has presented the conflict in a distorted manner all along: “Every time they present the issue with hysteria. We are fighting for our homeland. The Armenian people are today fighting for their dignity. We are leaders in this fight, and we realize that we are carrying out a unique mission, and we will continue our mission with the same realization,” he stressed.  

“We are ready to sacrifice and suffer hardship in order to have an opportunity to achieve final freedom,” Sahakyan added.