ANCA: Artsakh independence is victory over tyranny

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian underscored the importance of aligning U.S. policy with American values, as U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair James Warlick gears up to make a statement on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

"The standard against which we measure our State Department's policy on Nagorno Karabakh is, of course, America's core commitment to the universal values of freedom and democracy," said Hamparian. "Since the era in which we won our own independence, Americans have stood proudly on the side of liberty, rejecting foreign rule over free peoples, and defending - for ourselves and all humankind - the enduring principle that governments must derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Ambassador Warlick is set to issue the U.S. policy statement at 9:00 am EST on May 7, at a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace roundtable. The statement is timed with the 20th anniversary of the 1994 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire.

"The Republic of Nagorno Karabakh's independence, like our own, represents the victory of democratic self-determination over foreign tyranny and aggression. We rightfully celebrate and support this great triumph of the human spirit," noted Hamparian. "As Americans, we should never ask others to live with less freedom than we would accept for ourselves."

Since declaring independence in 1991, Nagorno Karabakh has successfully conducted five parliamentary and five presidential elections - that have been praised by international observers as free, fair and transparent. The most recent presidential elections held in July 2012 were favorably received by more than 80 international observers from two dozen countries, including the United States. Election observers included the former Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch and then Canadian Parliamentarian Jim Karygianni, who declared, “It was a picture perfect election from start to finish.”

Freedom House upgraded Karabakh’s democracy status as a result in 2012. Parliamentary elections held in May 2010 were rated “free, fair and transparent” by an independent American-Dutch monitoring delegation sponsored by the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG), which noted that Karabakh “continues to make strong progress in establishing and sustaining a healthy and sustainable democracy.”