21/09/2015
Happy Independence Day Armenia!
In Armenia, Independence Day is an official holiday. It commemorates the restoration of the Republic of Armenia on September 21, 1991, after 70 years of Soviet rule.
In the early days of spring 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev made a final effort to avert the inescapable demise of the Soviet Union. On March 17, 1991 a referendum was held to preserve the Soviet Union. Almost 78 percent of the population was in favor to preserve of the Soviet Union. The Armenian republic, the Georgian, Moldovan, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian, in unison they all rejected the referendum. On March 1, the Supreme Council of Armenia decided to hold its own referendum on independence six months later.
On August 23, 1990, the Supreme Council validated the Declaration of Independence, created by the new leaders of Armenia. The president of the Supreme Council at the time, Levon Ter-Petrossian, signed the document and Aram Manukian, a member of the parliament and of the ruling elite, read the declaration of independence aloud for the very first time.
It was quite obvious to the Armenian people and its leaders that the Soviet Union’s collapse is inevitable. The Soviet Union survived for only another 16 months after the referendum.
On September 21, Armenia held its referendum on independence. Almost 95 percent of the qualified voters took part, and voted “Yes” to the having an independent, free, and self-governing Armenian state.