The following was released by the Artsakh Foreign Ministry.

The Artsakh National-Liberation Struggle is one of the most important pages in the history of the Armenian people. The Karabakh Movement was a struggle for historical justice, for the preservation of national identity and dignity, for civil rights and universal values, for living and creating freely in the historical homeland.
 
In response to the democratic, peaceful, and legitimate expression of will by the Armenians of Artsakh, Azerbaijan tried to intimidate our people through violence and force it to renounce the exercise of its rights. Azerbaijani authorities organized and carried out Genocide, massacres and mass deportations against the Armenian population in Sumgait, Baku and other Armenian-populated cities of Azerbaijan, as well as in the settlements of Northern Artsakh. Thousands of people were killed and injured and over half a million Armenians became refugees. And the peaceful population of Artsakh also became a target for the large-scale military aggression by Azerbaijan.
 
But, the Armenians of Artsakh united, and backed by the support of the Armenian Diaspora worldwide, were able to defend their right to live freely in their historical homeland in the war imposed upon them and to establish an independent statehood – the Republic of Artsakh.
 
Another attempt by the Azerbaijani authorities to suppress the inalienable right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination and to resolve the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict by force was the military aggression unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh on September 27, 2020, accompanied by numerous war crimes, gross violations of the norms of international humanitarian law and heavy human losses. 
 
Despite those disasters, Artsakh is standing. On this symbolic day, we bow to the defenders of the Motherland and patriots of our nation, commemorating all our martyrs.
 
Long live free and independent Artsakh!