The City of Warwick, RI, proclaimed May 20, 2012 as the Shushi Liberation Day. “Due to the bravery of Armenian soldiers and excellent military strategy and organization, Shushi was liberated,” says proclamation by the Warwick’s Mayor Scott Avedisian.

“Attempts to reunify Artsakh and Armenia were met with resistance by Azerbaijan with murders, slaughters and torture”, the proclamation says, and emphasizes that “liberating Shushi became a matter of life and death”. The proclamation also characterizes the liberation of Shushi as “a turning point in the war” between Azerbaijan and Artsakh, reports the Office of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in the United States.

Mayor of Shushi Garen Avakimyan thanked the Mayor and the City of Warwick for the Proclamation. Avakimyan’s letter, in particular, said “Twenty years ago the city (of Shushi) returned to the Armenian people to become a symbol of courage and perseverance, a symbol of a selfless struggle for freedom and justice”.