Menu
Latest
Menu
Latest
Commentary

Armenians mark the 20th anniversary of liberation of Shusha as Azerbaijanis commemorate the anniversary of its occupation.

9 May 2012

The Armenian leader, Serzh Sargsyan yesterday visited Nagorno-Karabakh to boost morale in the territory following recent incidents on the line of contact separating Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. The President also visited the town of Shusha which Armenians say that they liberated in 1992, but which Azerbaijanis claim is under Armenian occupation.

The President was accompanied during his visit by the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and by the president of the self declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), Bako Sahakian.

The website of the Armenian President said that the visit was "in the framework of the celebrations dedicated to Victory Day, NKR Defense Army and the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Shushi".

In the meantime in Baku an art and photo exhibition entitled "Shusha - the pearl of history and culture of Azerbaijan" opened on Monday. According to a decree signed by President Ilham Aliyev "on the 20th anniversary of Shusha's occupation, in all the cultural centers of Azerbaijan events will be held", Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfas Garayev said, speaking at the opening of the exhibition at the Museum Center. "Shusha, which was founded in 1747, has always been a city of Azerbaijan, and always will be. Shusha is the conservatoire of Azerbaijan," he said.

Shusha holds its place in the history of Azerbaijan, the Chairman of Public Association "Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh", the head of the Shusha region, Bayram Safarov, said at the meeting. "Today the Azerbaijani army is ready to liberate Shusha, but the Azerbaijani side is trying to return the occupied land peacefully. If not, Shusha and other occupied territories will be returned by any means," he said.

In the meantime within hours of taking office as President of Russia, Vladimir Putin has signed an Executive Order "On Measures for the implimentation of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation." According to the Administration of the Russian President "the Executive Order aims to implement a coherent foreign policy of the Russian Federation that would protect its national interests based on the principles of pragmatism, transparency and a multiple-vector approach in forming a new, multicentric system of international relations."

On Nagorno-Karabakh the Executive Order gives instructions for "settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in cooperation with other OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries and based on the principles laid out in joint statements by the President of Russia, the President of the United States and the President of France made between 2009 and 2011".

source: commonspace.eu

photo: Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan layed a wreath on the ocassion of Victory Day during his visit to nagorno-Karabakh on 8 May. (picture courtesy of the Press Office of the president of Armenia).

Related articles

Editor's choice
News
COP 17 in Armenia
Trending

COP 17 in Armenia

22 October 2026
Armenia is currently hosting the COP17 conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which began earlier this week (19 October) and will run until 30 October, bringing around 15,000 participants from 196 different countries to Yerevan. At a leaders' summit held as part of COP17, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed realistic ambitions: “We are halfway towards achieving these goals (Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework), and we must honestly acknowledge that we are not yet moving in the right direction. Our task now is not to make new promises, but to fulfil the commitments we have already made.” Pashinyan pointed towards Armenia's own records, noting that the whitefish stock in Lake Sevan has increased substantially in the last ten years. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also addressed the summit, with Turkiye sending its agriculture minister. However, there were no reports of Azerbaijani representatives attending. The conference has given Yerevan a valuable international platform, yet the absence of Azerbaijan is likely to be read as a sign that the peace process in the South Caucasus has not yet been translated into wider regional cooperation. The leaders' summit was opened by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who stressed that hosting the conference was a great honour for Armenia. He expressed hope that it would 'be productive and contribute to protecting our planet's biodiversity'. 'We – the citizens of Armenia, the government, state authorities and local governments – owe a debt to our nature,' the prime minister said. He noted that the international community had already developed the concept of 'living in harmony with nature’ and adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, setting out goals and specific targets to be achieved by 2030. 'We are halfway towards achieving these goals, and we must honestly acknowledge that we are not yet moving in the right direction. Our task now is not to make new promises, but to fulfil the commitments we have already made,' Nikol Pashinyan said. The COP17 conference is expected to adopt a declaration at leaders' level. More than 30 documents are scheduled for discussion. If approved, the commitments set out in them will become legally binding on countries that are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.”
Editor's choice
News
Landmines present to the European Union both a contradiction and a dilemma
Trending

Landmines present to the European Union both a contradiction and a dilemma

20 October 2026
Finland’s decision to buy one million landmines creates a serious contradiction in the policy of the European Union, and is symbolic of a bigger dilemma facing European countries as they get used to the need to acquire “hard” power to face an increasing threat from Russia. Finland is seeking to acquire one million anti-personnel mines at a cost of 100 million euros. Finland, together with Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia last year abandoned the Ottawa agreement, the international framework that bans the use of anti-personnel mines, which the EU had been instrumental in establishing and supporting. All five countries cite the threat from Moscow as the reason. Colonel Riku Mikkonen of the Army Command told Finland’s national news agency STT that officials are now gathering information from suppliers regarding the deal, the AFP news agency reports. Helsinki would like domestic manufacturers to supply the mines, with contracts signed by the end of 2027 and production up and running by 2028. “It would be useful in many ways if Finnish companies produced the anti-personnel mines in Finland,” Mikkonen said. About half a dozen Finnish firms qualify, he told STT. “However, at this stage, buying the mines from abroad is not totally ruled out,” he added. LANDMINES PROVIDE THE EU WITH BOTH A CONTRADICTION, AND A DILEMMA Eliminating landmine contamination worldwide is one of the EU’s main soft power postures, and it basks in its record as the biggest funder of anti-landmine action in the world. But the fact that 5 of its 27 member states  have now left the Ottawa Treaty dents the EU moral high ground. It is a contradiction that is too big and important to be ignored. It also presents the European Union with a deeper dilemma. The threat from Russia is changing what the EU has stood for decades, namely a force for good able to mobilise its considerable soft power for the greater good of humanity. How the Union will implement this change will define its future. In the meantime landmines have not become any less lethal, benign, or unimportant. They remain in many parts of the world a major threat to life, an impediment to prosperity, and a potential trigger to further conflict. The 22 EU members states that still adhere to the Ottawa treaty must regroup, and be more assertive in their quest against anti-personnel land mines. All the reasons why they supported the Ottawa treaty in the first place still exist. The message must be clear: NO TO LANDMINES!

Popular

Editor's choice
Interview
Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov
Trending

Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

15 January 2026
Today, commonspace.eu starts a new regular weekly series. THURSDAY INTERVIEW, conducted by Lauri Nikulainen, will host  persons who are thinkers, opinion shapers, and implementors in their countries and spheres. We start the series with an interview with Murad Muradov, a leading person in Azerbaijan's think tank community. He is also the first co-chair of the Action Committee for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue. Last September he made history by being the first Azerbaijani civil society activist to visit Armenia after the 44 day war, and the start of the peace process. Speaking about this visit Murad Muradov said: "My experience was largely positive. My negative expectations luckily didn’t play out. The discussions were respectful, the panel format bringing together experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey was particularly valuable during the NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan, and media coverage, while varied in tone, remained largely constructive. Some media outlets though attempted to represent me as more of a government mouthpiece than an independent expert, which was totally misleading.  Overall, I see these initiatives as important steps in rebuilding trust and normalising professional engagement. The fact that soon a larger Azerbaijani civil society visits to Armenia followed, reinforces the sense that this process is moving in the right direction." (click the image to read the interview in full)
Murad Muradov
Lauri Nikulainen interviews Murad Muradov