[27 February 1988]
Telegram of Catholicos Karekin II of the Great House of Cilicia (Antilias, Lebanon), to Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev
Your Excellency,
We, Karekin II Catholicos, the spiritual leader of the Armenian church of the Holy See of Great Cilicia, are deeply concerned with the current situation in the region of Karabagh under the authority of Soviet Azerbaijan, a situation which is troubling the life of the Armenian people.
Your Excellency is aware that geographically, historically and ethnographically Karabagh is part of Armenia. It was a historical error to annex it to the Azerbaijani Republic. The Armenians of Karabagh, of Soviet Armenia, and all over the diaspora have never ceased to demand that Karabagh be attached to the motherland, to Armenia. The massive public expression of the will of the Armenian people in Karabagh, Yerevan, throughout Soviet Armenia and the diaspora constitutes a telling witness of the unbreakable link which the Armenian people feel toward Karabagh, a part of the fatherland.
We sincerely believe and warmly request from Your Excellency to correct the error committed in 1923 and to make justice work for the Armenian people, by reattaching Karabagh to the Soviet Armenian Republic.
Your concern for human rights, reform and restructuring gives us the right to hope that the just expectations of the Armenian people will be realized and justice will be reestablished. We thank you for your kind attention toward the peaceful and just solution of a burning issue.
Prayerfully,
Karekin II Catholicos
The Great House of Cilicia
[Asbarez, March 5, 1988]
The Karabagh File, Documents and Facts, 1918-1988, First Edition, Cambridge Toronto 1988, by the ZORYAN INSTITUTE, edited by: Gerard J. LIBARIDIAN, pp. 117-118.
