Today marks 24 years since adopting Armenia’s Independence Declaration

Being without an independent statehood for over 600 years, Armenia adopted a Declaration of Independence 24 years ago today in a move initiated by the Supreme Council of the then Soviet republic.

The document, which reflected the Armenian nation’s unanimous will and commitment to reinstate historical justice, laid the foundations of the Third Republic. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was thus renamed the Republic of Armenia.

Earlier, on December 1 1989,  the Supreme Council of Armenia and the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh, adopted a joint decision that marked the beginning of the independence process.

In a nationwide referendum on September 21, 1991, the overwhelming majority of Armenia’s population (94.99 %) voted in favor of independence.

Armenia thus became a subject of international law, which later adopted its own flag, national anthem and coat of arms, and established corresponding state bodies to protect the security and inviolability of borders and ensure the country’s defense. The subsequent years saw the newly-independent state create new legislation and join different international organizations.

Under the Constitution, adopted in 1995, the Republic of Armenia was defined as a sovereign, democratic, social state governed by the rule of law (Article 1).

Aram Manukyan, a current opposition lawmaker (Armenian National Congress), who read out the text of the declaration at the Supreme Council in 1990, says he remembers the period as a time of “divine” and “miraculous” events.

“There was an inexplicable enthusiasm both inside and outside the [parliament] hall. After the Declaration of Independence was read out in parliament that day, thousands gathered in Liberty Square in what is now described as a spontaneous campaign,” he recalled.

“It was a fete, a festivity full of love and responsibility, belief and humanism; it was quite a different atmosphere, as the document came to realize the centuries-old dream.”

Manukyan said he believes that the declaration will remain as a major, ideal and realistic keynote document in the annals of the Armenia’s history.

Congratulating the Armenians on the remarkable day, the politician said he regrets that the sovereign statehood does not now have the same volume and reserve of independence as it did at the beginning. “Independence is something that requires understanding the existing difficulties, risks and challenges. And it also needs love. You cannot be the master of independence without loving it; it needs care and nourishing,” he added.

Remembering the pre-independence years, Chairman of the Helsinki Association’s Vanadzor Office Arthur Sakunts said the atmosphere in Armenia and the people’s expectations were completely different what they are today.

“The prevailing understanding was that the processes were taking place in the USSR, which was already in agony, but the people did have the feeling of freedom and the aspiration for achieving freedom. In the course of time, the sense of liberty comes to imply responsibility as well, first of all, without dependence on anyone. But the desire for building one’s own life and country began to slowly diminish. And we now see the solution to major problems being linked to the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] and the Russian Federation,” he noted.

Sakunts said he observed a metamorphosis of the independence concept after 1998.

“And we again came to face the same problems that we did 24 years ago, but in a worse form than then, with desperation and uncertainty all around,” he said, referring to the problem of political prisoners.

Paruyr Hayrikyan, long-time champion of independence who now heads the National Self-Determination Union, said he thinks that the younger generation today realizes its future much better than did the then Soviet-time political leaders who were kind of unprepared or unwilling to accept the idea of independence.

“Hence those people [members of the Armenian Pan-National Movement which was then a ruling party founded and led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan] realized that they were to carry out their duties. But the responsibility that lied behind was unfortunately perceived in a negative sense,” he added.

Hayrikyan said he thinks that the biggest achievement of the independence period was the chance to return to the legal status implying self-determination.