A century of abandonment: From the Armenian Genocide to the fall of Karabakh
The Central Council of Armenians in Germany and the Diocese of the Armenian Church in Germany hosted a memorial ceremony on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.
On April 26, 2025, the hallowed halls of Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main bore witness to a solemn remembrance of that crime. Addressing the high memorial assembly, Prof. Dr. Otto Luchterhandt—one of Germany’s leading specialists on Eastern European law and an emeritus professor at the University of Hamburg—delivered a powerful indictment of historical denial and contemporary inaction, drawing direct lines from past complicity to present failures.
Luchterhandt began by recalling the recent tragedies in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), where, between 2020 and 2023, Azerbaijani and Turkish forces isolated and ultimately eradicated the Armenian population through siege, starvation and forced exodus. This “annihilation,” as described by former International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, was unmistakably genocidal1
This modern catastrophe echoed the 1915 genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, a crime in which Germany, then an ally of the Ottoman, was deeply complicit. German soldiers and diplomats enabled the slaughter through military support, yet post-war Germany has struggled to confront its role. “It has not entered the memory of the German people to this day,” Luchterhandt lamented.
After World War II, the Holocaust understandably dominated German historical consciousness, but it also led to a “uniqueness thesis” that stifled comparative genocide research. Only in the 1990s, largely through American influence, did such scholarship gain traction in Germany. It wasn’t until 2016, on the genocide’s 101st anniversary, that the Bundestag officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. 2
That recognition owed much to the Armenian diaspora in Germany, especially the Central Council of Armenians, which spearheaded petitions and advocacy. Yet, Luchterhandt stressed that even then, the Bundestag’s resolution omitted any reference to the Karabakh conflict, despite Azerbaijan’s military assault on Artsakh weeks earlier, in April 2016. This omission, he argued, revealed a dangerously narrow understanding of Germany’s “special responsibility” in the South Caucasus.
Germany, then chairing the OSCE, could have pushed for a demilitarized corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh—a measure suggested by Russia’s foreign minister. But Foreign Minister Steinmeier failed to act. The OSCE Minsk Group, including Germany, stood idle, thereby paving the way for Azerbaijan’s later offensives in 2020 and 2023. The April War of 2016, Luchterhandt argued, was a “dress rehearsal” for genocide, as predicted in his 2016 analysis titled: “Nagorno-Karabakh: Europe’s Next Avoidable War!”.
The EU’s December 1991 decision to recognize only the USSR’s and Yugoslavia’s constituent republics—excluding autonomous regions like Nagorno-Karabakh—also sealed Artsakh’s fate. The Armenians of Artsakh had exercised their legal right under Soviet law to vote for independence, with 80% support. But international recognition never followed. Had the OSCE Minsk Group respected this legal foundation, Nagorno-Karabakh could have achieved legitimate statehood.
Luchterhandt traced the roots of Karabakh’s limbo back to 1921, when Stalin overturned a Soviet decision to incorporate the Armenian-majority region into Armenia, yielding instead to Azerbaijani pressure. This historical injustice, compounded by post-Soviet international indifference, laid the groundwork for Azerbaijan’s violent reclamation.
More troubling still, Luchterhandt detailed Azerbaijan’s long-standing campaign of anti-Armenian hate. Two infamous examples stood out: the 2004 murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov—who was later celebrated as a national hero upon his extradition from Hungary—and the 2005 destruction of the Armenian khachkar cemetery at Julfa in Nakhichevan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, by the Azerbaijani military. These were not isolated events, he argued, but emblematic of state-sanctioned Armenophobia.
In October 2020, during the third Karabakh war, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev broadcast genocidal intent: “If they do not leave our land voluntarily, we will drive them out like dogs.” Yet, Luchterhandt noted, no international sanctions followed. The West’s equidistant neutrality—treating aggressor and victim as equals—emboldened Baku and devastated Artsakh.
Germany, by contrast, had both moral and political obligations to act, rooted in its historic role in the 1915 genocide. Yet, instead of leadership, it offered silence. Despite its membership in the OSCE Minsk Group, Germany never pressed for measures to protect Artsakh’s people. Its failure mirrored that of the broader international community, which prioritized economic ties and energy security over human rights.
Luchterhandt’s speech closed with a call to action. Armenia today stands isolated, with its traditional ally, Russia, no longer reliable. The West, especially the Council of Europe, must finally live up to its stated principles of peace, justice and the rule of law. Armenia’s path forward, he said, must be guided by wisdom, legality and diplomacy, particularly in negotiating with Azerbaijan’s leadership, whom he identified as perpetrators of “serious crimes under international law.
He outlined three non-negotiable demands for any peace settlement:
- The unconditional release of Artsakh’s imprisoned leaders;
- The right of return for displaced Karabakh Armenians;
- The continued global recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Ending on a note of solemn defiance, Luchterhandt invoked a phrase from Fridtjof Nansen, High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations in 1927, who described the Armenians as a “betrayed people.” That betrayal,3 he warned, Luchterhandt warned, continues today.
“God save Armenia and the Karabakh Armenians!” he concluded.
Ara Nazarian, PhD
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- Luis Moreno Ocampo’s designation of Artsakh’s destruction as “genocide” was delivered during the same memorial event in 2024.
- German Bundestag resolution of June 2, 2016 recognized the 1915 mass killings as genocide, a century after the events occurred.
- Fridtjof Nansen’s characterization of the Armenians as a “betrayed people” comes from his humanitarian work following World War I.
Between the Armenians and the Palestinians, I’m not sure who the most abandoned people on earth are.