Recently professor in Armenian Studies at Freie Universitaet Berlin <b>Jirayr Kocharian </b> presented a report on the Armenian-Turkish <b> Protocols </b> and their impact on the <b> Karabakh conflict </b> for the Armenian cultural and spiritual community of Berlin and Hamburg.

"I think, the signing of the protocols is a consequence of other countries' pressure. History has proven that one cannot trust the Turks. Apparently, the Turkish side will set up a thousands of claims before agreeing to open the border. And first of all, the solution of the Karabakh conflict will be the requirement, which will be followed by a number of other unacceptable demands. After all, if two countries really want to normalize relations, they must adhere to the items of the Protocol ," Jirayr Kocharian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

According to him, the Armenian community in Germany are against the two main provisions of protocol: establishment of the historical subcommittee and the recognition of de facto existing borders.

"After all, it casts doubt on everything the Armenian people experienced. Besides, this is not we who closed the border, but Turkey, and it is responsible for it, " Jirayr Kocharian concluded.

First Armenians who settled in Germany in new times were students who came to Kaiser's Germany to study and they founded the first Union of Armenian students in Germany in Leipzig in 1885. The actual migration of Armenians to Germany in XX century was occurred after the Armenian Genocide in Turkey and the First World War. <b> "German-Armenian Society" </b> non-profit association was founded in 1914 in Berlin and in 1923 the Armenian colony in Berlin was the first formally registered Armenian community. The biggest wave of migration of Armenians to Germany in the postwar was in 1970's and was caused by the war in Lebanon, and the fundamentalist revolution in Iran in the 1980's: about 20 thousand Armenians moved to Germany.

Latest big migration flow of Armenians to Germany was after the collapse of the Soviet Union and particularly after the massacres of Armenians in Baku and Sumgait (Azerbaijan). According to the Central Board of Armenians in Germany, about 10 thousand Armenians fled to Germany from Azerbaijan. According to the same source, between 40 and 42 thousand Armenians live in Germany, about half of them were born in Germany.

The <b>Protocols</b> aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks held through Swiss mediation.

On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country’s Organic Law.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.