Representatives of various NKR youth and student organizations have issued a joint statement condemning the current Karabakh conflict settlement process based on the "Madrid Principles". The statement labels attempts to force such a settlement on the NKR as "unjust and contracry to the national interests of the Karabakh people". The statement calls any attempt to settle the conflict without the full participation of the NKR as "fruitless" and thus calls on the international mediators to correct this shortcoming. The representatives, who call themselves the "generation of independence", state that twenty-one years ago the people of Karabakh united against the discriminatory policies of Azerbaijan and have, in the ensuing eighteen years, created a state that conforms to all internationally accepted norms of self-governance. The statement concludes by declaring that while the signatories welcome the efforts on the mediators to establish peace in the South Caucasus, any settlement reached without the participation of the NKR will be rejected.