“Arthur Mkrtchyan, elected president of the Karabakh Supreme Council in a very complicated situation, was subjected to pressure from different places at once: the Communist nomenclature from Armenia, from here and there came immediately announcing that they go to meet Yeltsin right away in accordance with the latter’s order. I said, “what have you told them? Throw them out”. He said, “I think the same too”, political scientist Manvel Sargsyan, who was among the founders of the Artsakh movement, recalled the events that took place 30 years ago in an interview with “Aravot”. “Those people got hurt and left.
After a couple of weeks, the whole world came to Stepanakert. First, the Foreign Minister of Iran, then the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, the French Deputy Foreign Minister, the CSCE delegation, the UN Secretary-General and others. We laughed at this so much…”, said our interlocutor and added, “It was very impressive to understand what is the essence of sovereignty: when you make the world come and recognize you. That is something that we have lost”.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
