OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF BERLINER ZEITUNG NEWSPAPER
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
2009-11-05 12:21
Having personally visited the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Berliner
Zeitung newspaper’s correspondent, if even desired, couldn’t but notice
that the people who had experienced terrible hardships, destructions,
and grief in an unequal struggle had, however, managed to realize its
right to self-determination, heroically stand all the calamities of the
war, restore its state infrastructure, and implement radical reforms
for establishing a state corresponding to the European standards.
After the World War II, the Germans dreamed for an integrated state
and lived with this idea tens of years. We don’t think that the German
nation’s aspiration can be questioned by any other nation.
Exactly 20 years ago, the Berlin separating wall was destroyed in just
a few days by the will of the great powers, and the Germans not only
reunited, but also gained full-fledged independence, on the occasion
of which we congratulate this distinctive and gifted nation of the
Old World.
Nagorno Karabakh gained its independence, having, first of all,
neutralized the Azerbaijani aggression, defending the lives of
children, women, and old people. Just that’s why nobody can question
the will and right of Nagorno Karabakh’s people to independence. In
other words, nobody brought the independence and right to free life to
Nagorno Karabakh on a tray. And if today’s population of our Republic
makes only 140 thousand, then it is also a vivid demonstration of
Azerbaijan’s evident anti-Armenian policy; otherwise, over a million
and a half of Karabakhi Armenians and their descendants would not be
citizens of other states today. So, like Germans in the recent past,
today we are also striving for our sovereignty.
The Germans have, for many years, cherished as relics the stones
and fragments of the once separating Berlin Wall. The situation is
totally different in Nagorno Karabakh. Here, the shrines are the
marble tombstones of soldiers perished at the Karabakh War for the
independence of their homeland. The correspondent of your newspaper
could not but notice that.
Unfortunately, we should state that having overcome thousand
kilometers, journalist Tobias Asmuth presented a superficial and
distorted article to the readers of the newspaper, without inquiring
the causes and essence of the Karabakh issue. Similarly, the author
could easily write a number of analogous articles, staying at home
and using various sites.
However, if freedom of speech and press is equivalent to a sin against
truth for the Berliner Zeitung, then it is quite a different matter.