Mr. Volker Kauder

Parliamentary Leader

CDU/CSU

The Bundestag, Berlin

Federal Republic of Germany

Dear Colleague: 

It has come to my attention that your parliamentary group—a partner of ours in the European People’s Party—might shortly be releasing, or at least considering, a draft resolution about Mountainous Karabagh. 

The freedom of your political expression is of utmost importance, but the truth is paramount. 

The Republic of Mountainous Karabagh (Artsakh in Armenian) was constituted lawfully in 1991 in full compliance with Soviet legislation, controlling at the time, and the fundamental precepts of international law as codified by the Montevideo Convention relating to the formation and recognition of sovereign states. 

None of us, neither your country nor ours, has any basis to curtail the basic right to liberty and self-determination of any other, old or new.  This holds especially true for Mountainous Karabagh whose people, in parallel with the demolition of the Great Wall which divided your capital for too long, reversed the Stalinist legacy of “divide and rule,” waged a constitutional and ultimately successful quest for freedom and independence, and defended their patrimony against the failed aggression of Soviet and then Azerbaijani forces. 

In view of its own unique track record in facing, atoning for, and surmounting the crimes against humanity committed by a predecessor regime—and with the resultant credentials of global leadership in terms of restoration of rights, democracy, and peace and security—postwar Germany should be the first to recognize the legitimate creation and territorial integrity of emerging state actors and the belated correction of historical injustices.  Both domestically and in international relations, the rule of law—or rather the supremacy of rights—militates against artificial and partisan applications of the archaic assertion of sui generis. 

What is more, Germany’s previous complicity in the Genocide of the Armenian Nation and the Dispossession of its Homeland, as duly evidenced in your own diplomatic and military archives, might give you further cause officially to acknowledge that unprecedented precursor to the Holocaust and to undertake meaningful measures, in conjunction with the Republic of Turkey, to bring this shameful era of denialism to a close, to address the occupation of the western half of the Armenian Plateau, and to restitute the rightful connection between the Armenian people and  their homeland. 

Real, not window-dressing normalization of relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan is crucial for Armenia, but never at the expense of historical memory, contemporary rights, and human dignity.  Il faut assumer l’histoire. 

Of all states and all parties, yours should best comprehend this imperative of values, conscience, and public policy. 

Respectfully yours, 

Raffi K. Hovannisian

Chairman and MP, Heritage Party

First Minister of Foreign Affairs

Republic of Armenia