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Panorama.am interviewed Dr Michael Kambeck, a former Secretary General of the «European Friends of Armenia», regarding the recent developments in Germany surrounding the recognition of Armenian Genocide, namely – April 23 statement by President Joachim Gauck who recognised the Armenian Genocide and Bundestag debate of draft resolution recognising the Genocide on April 24.

Panorama.am: Mr Kambeck, today on April 24 Armenians round the globe and the international community marks the centennial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Are you following these commemorative events?

Michael Kambeck: Sure. Of course. I have been engaged with Armenian issues for so many years, and of course I am following these events with great interest.

Panorama.am: Yesterday German President Joachim Gauck participated in a nondenominational religious service at Berlin Cathedral and in his speech described the 1915 mass slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "genocide". Do you think anything has changed in Germany after that speech by President Gauck?

Michael Kambeck: I think this was a concerted statement. You could see that the discussion about the resolution in the Parliament, and the discussion about what President Gauck would say has been on German media for the last 10-20 days. And some days ago most commentators claimed that the government would again say nothing, would do same thing as in the past, would say it was horrible, but not name it genocide.
The dynamics first started to change with the Pope, and his speech where he clearly said it was genocide. And then everybody wondered what will President Gauck say. And the President gave feedback to the parliamentarians and the government that he will not be silent. He is a man of conviction, he is also a Christian. And he said internally that he would not be silent.
Then the Government changed its stance. Suddenly even the coalition parliamentarians in the Bundestag said "we now have a formulation that we all can agree too", which also contained the word genocide. Suddenly, the spokesperson of the German Government read out exactly the same sentence in a news conference that was later used by President Gauck in his speech yesterday evening.
I think they didn't want to contradict publicly, and I think this is good for Armenia, for the whole cause. So, they really changed their position now.

Panorama.am: And today the Bundestag discussed a resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Anything changing in German politics regarding the issue?

Michael Kambeck: Well, for a long time it looked like the Government was exercising a lot of pressure on the German Parliament – the Bundestag – not to name this genocide «genocide», as they have done for many-many years. But I must say that the dynamics of the past couple of days produced exactly the opposite. The parliamentarians today in the debate wanted to make a change, and they actually openly critisised the Government for not having named the genocide «genocide», even those parliamentarians from the Christian-Democratic and Social-Democratic parties – the two parties that form the Government.
This has been a very open and free debate. It was not along party lines. Several MPs apologised also for the German involvement with the perpetrators of the Genocide. One of those with the clearest words in the German Bundestag was Cem Ozdemir, and he was really very critical of the denialism in Turkey, but also by the German Government so far. Parliamentarians said, it was a shame that in the past the German diplomats were even not allowed to attend any event if the discussions focused on the genocide. From now on Germany should be on the side of those who propagates «Never again!», just like it does with the Holocaust.

All speakers were on a similar line. There was no contradiction. The German Bundestag was very strong and critical against its own Government. I have rarely seen such debates here. And the Government was very quiet. I think we will see a change in the approach of Germany to this issue also in practice in the future.

Panorama.am: And the last question, please. Do you think the delay in adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution in the Bundestag has anything to do with the recent phone conversation between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu?

Michael Kambeck: No, definitely, I dont think that way. I think that now we have three draft resolutions which they will try consolidate into one. And it seems that the governmental parties have changed their wordings only very recently. Now all the three drafts name the word genocide, and they can be turned into one resolution. And this is what the Foreign Relations Committee will try to do. They will try to make one cross-party, one-fits-all resolution, that can be agreed to by all parties in the Bundestag, or at least by a vast majority. It is not because of Turkish interference. Turkey was quite ridiculous and hysteric with their actions recently, I dont think they achieved anything.