FOREWARDThis is a detailed study of the Nagorny Karabakh (Artzakh) issue according to international law: it affirms that Nagorny Karabakh Armenians, basing their claim on the inalienable right to self-determination, have every reason to demand the establishment of an independent state of Karabakh, or the detachment of the territory from Azerbaijan.
The author, Dr. Otto Luchterhandt, is a well-known specialist in international law. Born in 1943, he received his doctorate in jurisprudence in 1974 from the University of Cologne, Germany, for his thesis "The Soviet Union and the Russian Orthodox Church." In 1986 he won the Venia Legendi award from the University of Cologne for his work in public law, East European law and cannon law. Since 1991 he is director of East European Law Research Department at the University of Hamburg, Germany.
Beginning in 1975, Dr. Luchterhandt has studied the laws of East European socialist states, concentrating, in particular, on the former Soviet Union, with special emphasis on the legal status of individuals and communities under national and international law. During 1987-1988 he was secretary of a commission established at the Ministry of Justice by the Federal Republic of Germany to report on human rights in the Warsaw Pact states.
Since 1992 Dr. Luchterhandt gives periodic lectures on constitutional law at the Constitutional Court in Russia.
Assisting Dr. Luchterhandt in the preparation and translation of this work was the Institute for Armenian Studies in Germany, established in 1989 by Zolak Ter Harutunian, having as its goal promotion of Armenological studies in Germany in collaboration with the Association of German Research Foundation. It also aims at establishing relations between Armenia and the Armenian community in Germany.
The Institute holds conferences, studies the traumatic experience of the survivors of the Genocide, conducts research on Armenian-German relations (1878-1923), and examines the creation of an Armenian collective identity in the Diaspora.
By publishing Dr. Luchterhandt's most interesting study, the Armenian Rights Council hopes that it will have assisted in the creation of a positive attitude toward a just solution of the Karabakh issue.
Armenian Rights Council
