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“The year of 2011 has been marked for the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR, or Artsakh as Armenians were calling it for centuries) with the 20th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union. The people of Artsakh, despite various endemic challenges, made a choice for a free and democratic development – something previously unheard throughout the oppressive Communist era. The freedom-loving people in Karabakh followed the requirements of then effective (i.e. Soviet) legislation and norms of international law, and voted for independence at a nation-wide referendum on December 10, 1991 – right two weeks before the Soviet Union legally disappeared,” says the American analytical online publication Foreign Policy Journal in the article entitled “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic: The First 20 Years of de-facto Independence.”

Since restoring its independence, note the authors of the article, one of the toughest challenges for the NKR remains convincing those against Artsakh’s freedom, and first of all – neighboring Azerbaijan, that the world has changed since 1991, and that decolonization processes take place much smoother with the adequate reaction by former members of a single political-administrative entity. But, unfortunately, few of former Soviet republics refuse to accept the new realities, and cherish a partial and selective retention of Stalin’s deeds.

Authors note, that historically and legally, Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh has been one of the ancient Armenian principalities. During the short period of independence of South Caucasus republics (Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan) in 1918-1920, the League of Nations refused to recognize newly-created Azerbaijan because of its territorial claims towards Georgia and Armenia, particularly, claims over Nagorno-Karabakh, stating that “frontier disputes with neighboring states did not permit of an exact definition of the boundaries of Azerbaijan.” “Thus, it is extremely important to underline and keep in mind that in 1918-1920, international community, particularly the League of Nations, did not recognize Azerbaijan’s authority over Nagorno-Karabakh,” writes the Foreign Policy Journal.

After the region’s Sovietization, in 1921, the Bolshevik government, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, placed Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh inside the newly drawn borders of the Soviet Azerbaijan. As it is said in the publication, when during the era of perestroika and glasnost declared by Gorbachev the people of Karabakh sought to legally rejoin Armenia, Azerbaijan responded with anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku, Sumgayit, Kirovabad, Mingechaur, total blockade of Nagorno Karabakh, and escalation of the peaceful process into a full-scale war, which has claimed thousands of lives.

Noteworthy, that in 1991, when Azerbaijan adopted a declaration on state independence, it proclaimed itself the successor of the 1918-1920 Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, thus, as it's said in the article, rejecting the Soviet Azerbaijan’s legal and political heritage, including Soviet-era authority over the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, because the League of Nations didn’t recognize Azerbaijani authority over Nagorno Karabakh in the years of 1918-1920 Republic.