TODAY.AZ / Politics

Anti-Semitism and fascism continue to flourish in Armenia - NUMBERS, and FACTS

27 May 2022 [11:00] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


As is common, Armenia is abundant with endless calls and speeches by virtue of intolerance and hatred, and people, who call for peace, are considered traitors. Azerbaijan is one of those countries that have a bitter experience with Armenian aggression.

Hatred among Armenians against other nations has been promoted for decades. In addition to Turkophobia and Azerbaijanophobia, these are also anti-Semitic sentiments that prevail in Armenia.

Notwithstanding that almost a quarter of the XIX century is left behind, people in the world have learned to respect each other, and reckon with the views of others, but neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic tendencies that have historical roots still persist in a mono-ethnic country.

Consequently, today's Armenia has become the country with the most calls for anti-Semitism in the world. Not taking into account the fact that no one has ever benefited from such actions in world history, monuments to the fascist Garegin Nzhdeh and terrorists have also been erected in Yerevan.

To understand how widespread the hatred of the representatives of the Jewish nationality is, it is enough to look at the statistics. According to a 2014 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) poll, about 58% of Armenians experience anti-Semitism and similar prejudices. The figures show that Armenia is the second most anti-Semitic country in Europe and the third in the world after the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2018, the American Pew Research Center (PRC) conducted a survey in Central and Eastern Europe regarding the level of anti-Semitism. As can be seen from the table below, the highest level of anti-Semitism is found in the Republic of Armenia, which ranked first among 18 countries. One can imagine: 32% (!) of the inhabitants of the mono-ethnic republic stated that they would not like to see Jews as citizens of their country.

It is possible that the situation only worsened after the Second Karabakh War since Israel is one of the countries from which Azerbaijan purchased modern weapons to liberate its territories from Armenia's occupation.

The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora's 2020 annual report noted a dangerous rise in anti-Semitism. The most obvious examples are acts of vandalism, insults against the Jewish people, and the desecration of Holocaust memorials and monuments by Armenians.

The memorial consists of two parts: one plate has an inscription in Hebrew with a dedication to the victims of the Holocaust, and the second is dedicated to the dead Armenians. The vandals did not touch the "Armenian" part of the monument, but on the "Jewish" part, they smeared with red paint a dedication to the victims of the Holocaust and covered the plate with Nazi slogans. The symbolism of this act is transparent: the "Armenian genocide" is not questioned, and the genocide of the Jews is denied as a crime against humanity by Nazi inscriptions.

In addition, inscriptions were made on the desecrated monument with the names of Israeli Harop drones, which were used by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the liberation of Karabakh. So there is every reason to believe that this was a deliberate act, and not the impulsive actions of a lone vandal, as they tried to present.

The day after Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation to de-occupy its territories, on September 28, 2020, the monument to the victims of the Holocaust in Yerevan was desecrated for the first time. A few days later, the Armenians attempted to set it on fire with an incendiary mixture. And, finally, the third act of vandalism was expressed in the fact that Armenian anti-Semites wrote "your hands in blood" on the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

The reaction of Armenians to the sale of high-tech weapons to Azerbaijan by Israel is completely inadequate. Many countries sell weapons, and Azerbaijan acquires them not only from Israel. For example, also from Russia. However, Armenia recalled its ambassador from Israel. Playing up the fact that Israel sold weapons to Azerbaijan with a propaganda machine has increased the already high degree of anti-Semitic sentiment in Armenian society.

Let's get back to the ADL survey. It mentions 11 prejudices that Armenians suffer from, in particular, they do not like that representatives of Jewish nationality "have too much influence in the global business environment and the financial sector" (72% and 68% of respondents expressed such an opinion), "they talk too much about the Holocaust", allegedly "do not think about anyone but themselves", "have too much influence in the US government", "control most of the media", "guilty of all the wars that have occurred". As one can see, the opinions are, to put it mildly, shocking.

The popularization of anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism is an integral part of the state policy of Armenia. Anti-Semitism in Armenia, which began at the end of the XIX century, moved into the 30s and 40s of the last century, and now in the XIX century, it manifested itself with renewed vigor in "independent" Armenia. Suffice it to recall the attempts to present Jesus Christ as an Armenian, and the Armenians as the first Christians.

The picture below shows the streets and monuments in Kafan and 17 other territorial units, including Gyumri (the second largest city in Armenia) in honor of those who promoted anti-Semitism.

It has been established that places named after anti-Semites and neo-Nazis in the South Caucasus exist only in Armenia. In addition, Drastamat Kanayan, an activist of the armed organization Dashnaktsutyun, known by the nickname Dro, appears in the history books and in the press, who is accused of complicity in the murder of 30,000 Jews. In addition, the fascist ideology, called "Nzhdeism" is included in the curriculum of the Armenian educational institutions.

Nzhdeh's books are published in Armenia, and festivities, exhibitions, and the so-called "cultural activities" are organized to honor him. “If there are such heroes, there will be books. And then new young generations read these books and are inspired to new feats,” say Armenians, who adhere to monoethnic views.

The Armenians have also published a book called "Nzhdeapatum". This is a collection of materials about the life of a Nazi criminal, fragments from his works and thoughts. They even dared to call him a philosopher, emphasizing that recently there has been a growing interest in the figure of Nzhdeh, in particular, attention, "to the ideological legacy he has left".

Moreover, the Armenians have the audacity to promote Nzhdeh even in Russia, where they are very sensitive to the issue of glorifying Nazism. For example, on January 28, 2022, a scandal erupted in the Russian Federation due to the grossest provocation of the Union of Armenians of Russia (UAR).

The Armenian lobby, contrary to the days of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust, the liberation of Auschwitz, the liberation of Leningrad from the German-Finnish blockade, and wide-ranging discussions of the initiative to officially recognize the genocide of the peoples of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War, it decided to screen a film about the Nazi and fascist Garegin Nzhdeh. Moreover, this happened on the street named after the Soviet Army, where the UAR is headquartered.

The reaction of Russian law enforcement agencies was not long in coming. The police soon broke into the building of the UAR, dispersed the gathered provocateurs, and stopped the screening of the fascist film, as a result of which the Armenians began to become hysterical. Hitlerite fanatics tried to refute irrefutable evidence and documents confirming the fascist and anti-Soviet activities of Nzhdeh.

In 2021, the Armenpress news agency presented an author's project "Yerevan Bestseller", within which it presented Top 10 documentary works. The list's data is based on sales results for August. In second place in sales was the book "Garegin Nzhdeh. Biography, reflections" by Rafael Hambardzumyan.

Speaking of the media. The Armenian press also keeps up with anti-Semitic comments. For example, the former leader of the Aryan Union of Armenia party, known for his chauvinist speeches, Armen Avetisyan, wrote an anti-Semitic article in the Iravung newspaper, where he pointed out that "every country inhabited by a Jewish minority is under a great threat to stability”.

In an interview with Voice of Armenia, Hranush Kharatyan, head of a government committee of the ex-president and criminal Robert Kocharyan on national minorities and religion, said the Shabbat celebration is supposedly hostile to non-Jews.

The owner of ALM Media, Tigran Karapetyan, once said that "Jews are a flawed race that rules the world and that they pose a threat to Armenia". Roman Episkopiyan's book "The National System" states that "Jews are to blame for all the troubles that have befallen the Armenian people". The author called the Turks a "people of conspirators" and the Jews a "destructive nation". In the chapter "The Greatest Fraud of the 20th Century," Episkopyan notes that "the Holocaust is a myth".

With all this, Armenia declares that they want to improve relations with Israel, moreover, on the condition that Israel recognized the "Armenian genocide". If Armenia places "high hopes" on developing relations with the Jewish state, then the question arises - how or when will it begin to fight neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism?

Israel and Armenia do not have any points of contact, or ties in the field of security, arms sales, the energy sector, agriculture, high technology, cybersecurity, and medicine. There are practically no Jews in the country, only about 50 people, of which half are Armenians.

People like Nzhdeh are war criminals and ultra-nationalists, who stained themselves with the blood of thousands of civilian victims. People, who try to glorify him and others, are ready to repeat their crimes. It is not just like that, it's not an academic exercise - it's the creation of a political platform for war criminals. They have goals, and these goals are the justification of their own policies and their own actions. People who bring to light the image of Nzhdeh and his like are preparing war crimes on nationalist grounds.

The international community should take seriously the anti-Semitism that grows stronger every year in Armenia. Armenians do not seem to understand that anti-Semitism and any attempt to glorify fascism cause shock and disgust not only among all participants in the Second World War but throughout the world. Victory in the Second World War is a victory beyond human capabilities, this is our present world on Earth.

It was not only a victory over fascist Germany, it was a step towards the eradication of fascism. How narrow-minded should today's people be, how much should they not respect their ancestors, who sacrificed themselves in order to glorify the fascist ideology now, which was built only on baseless hatred of the Jewish people? It is terrible when today Armenian youth unite under the banner of fascism. This speaks of a lack of education, of uncontrolled aggression.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/220746.html

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