The deja vu effect: Moscow makes the same mistake

KM.RU has published the article titled 'The deja vu effect: Moscow makes the same mistake'.

Thus, in line with the article, on July 17, 2017, the foreign ministers of the CSTO member-states made a statement about the inadmissibility of desecrating the memory of Liberator soldiers during the Second World War. 

In particular, it was said:

"We categorically reject and strongly condemn the deliberate efforts to rewrite the history, distort and revise the outcome of the Second World War, attempts to glorify Nazism and militant nationalism"

The CSTO statement is completely justified, and it is no accident that we are outraged when Ukraine, for example, declares Bandera and Shukhevych the national heroes. However, similar things are happening not only in Ukraine, though much less is said about this. A pompous monument to one of the most odious figures of the "Dashnaktsutyun" party - Garegin Nzhdeh – was erected in Yerevan in 2016. The opening ceremony was held in a solemn atmosphere with the participation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

And it is hard to imagine that Sargsyan is not familiar with the biography of the "originator of the triumph."

At the dawn of the 20th century, Nzhdeh was involved in "Dashnaktsutyun’s case" and spent several years in prison. To those who don’t know:  before the revolution "Dashnaktsutyun" was engaged in terrorist activities. During the Second World War, Nzhdeh actively collaborated with the Nazis, and was a member of the so-called Armenian Council (Berlin, 1942). He appealed to the Reichsminister of the eastern occupied territories, Rosenberg with a request to make Armenia a German colony.

After Germany’s defeat, he was arrested by SMERSH employees and then sentenced to 25 years in prison. On December 21, 1955, Nzhdeh died in the Vladimir prison.

But the years passed, the USSR disappeared from the map of the world, and in our time the Armenian leadership allows to erect a monument to this figure in the capital city. Moreover, the first person of the state personally arrives at the opening ceremony. Neither the complicity with the Hitlerites, nor the calls to turn Armenia into the Reich's colony become an obstacle for the monument to Nzhdeh to appear in Yerevan.

And this is not the only example. A memorial complex and a memory park were built for Nzhdeh in Kapan (a city in the south of Armenia) in 2005. There is an obvious contradiction: Armenia erects monuments to the accomplice of the Nazis and, as a CSTO member, condemns such actions at a high diplomatic level.

It cannot be said that the Russian media completely ignore the appearance of such monuments in Armenia. There were some, though few, publications about it. But Moscow’s reaction on the official level turned out vague.

Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova held a briefing on June 2, 2016. She was asked:

"A few days ago, Kiev decided to rename the Moscow Avenue into Stepan Bandera Avenue, and a monument to Nazi Garegin Nzhdeh was opened in Yerevan on Saturday. What is the attitude of the Russian Foreign Ministry to these facts of rewriting our common history by our neighbors? "

Zakharova replied:

"As for the second case which you mentioned, I cam not say anything, for I did not see this information."

Though Zakharova did not have the necessary information on that issue, she got back to that question on June 10, 2016, and expressed the following position:

"We do not understand why this monument was erected, since we all know about the immortal feat of the Armenian people in the times of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.

"Of course, for us the attitude to May 9 – our common day of victory - is the main indicator of the official position of Yerevan on the issue of preserving the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War.

"Armenia is also a co-sponsor of UN General Assembly's traditional resolution 'Combatting glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance'. In addition, when the resolution was adopted at the 70th session of the General Assembly, it was the Armenian delegation that voiced a joint statement of the CSTO member- states in support of this important initiative. We proceed from the fact that this is precisely the official position of Yerevan and the Armenian people. "

Zakharova claims that the main indicator of Yerevan’s official stance is the attitude towards Victory.  But doesn’t the erection of a monument to the accomplice of the Nazis cast a shadow on the attitude towards Victory?

Zakharova recalled that Armenia is one of the co-authors of the UN General Assembly resolution "Combatting glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance." And how then can one interpret the appearance of the Nzhdeh monument in Yerevan? Is this not a violation of this resolution? And how to treat the fact that the opening ceremony of the monument was attended by President of Armenia Sargsyan? ..

All these are but rhetorical questions that cause the deja vu effect. Moscow acted similarly in the 1990s, when Ukraine began promoting the Bandera myth. Even then, the experts warned about the extremely negative consequences of such an ideological policy of Ukraine, but official Moscow turned a blind eye on this fact. Now Kiev is ruled by a radically anti-Russian regime, and Bandera firmly entered the "pantheon" of the heroes of new Ukraine.

Did Moscow not draw any conclusion from Ukraine’s case?

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