[25 April 1919]
Resolution unanimously approved by the Fifth Assembly of Armenians of Karabagh on the issue of a provisional government
The Fifth Congress of Armenians of Karabagh, having heard during its formal session of April 23, 1919, the presentation on administrative programs for the establishment of a provisional government in Karabagh as presented by General Shuttleworth, representative of the British Command, and having examined in depth this same program during its official session of April 29, resolves that:
- The Fifth Assembly of Armenians of Karabagh aspires ardently toward the reestablishment of order and peace in Karabagh.
- It accedes with all sincerity and all its heart to the requests formulated by the British Command for the reestablishment of friendly relations with our Tatar neighbors, a position that has been the policy adopted by the Armenian population throughout Karabagh.
- We take note, as General Shuttleworth has stated himself, that all questions relating to territory and frontiers with regard to Karabagh will receive a definitive solution at the Peace Conference.
The Fifth Assembly of Armenians of Karabagh finds, however, that the program it has been presented does not correspond to the wishes and vital interestս of the Armenian population of Karabagh as clearly defined in the directives and critical mandate that he Assembly has given to its representatives.
The Assembly therefore finds the administrative program creating jurisdictional links with the government of Azerbaijan unacceptable, and it believes that the realization by force of such a program would create grave and bloody conflict between the two races, for which the Congress would not wish to assume responsibility.
The original is signed by all the members of the Bureau, a total of 48 delegates.
Shushi, 25 April 1919, Fifth Assembly of Armenians of Karabagh
The Karabagh File, Documents and Facts, 1918-1988, First Edition, Cambridge Toronto 1988, by the ZORYAN INSTITUTE, edited by: Gerard J. LIBARIDIAN, pp. 16-17
