In modern Armenia, many articles of near-scientific content have been written about Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan (Nzhdeh), telling about "the outstanding contribution of an implacable fighter against Bolshevik tyranny, the Turkic threat" and forces capable of "undermining the integrity and foundations of the Armenian nation from within." The bronze monument erected in Yerevan in 2016 in memory of Ter-Harutyunyan seems to call on the young generation of Armenians to be like Nzhdeh, to follow his ideals and his philosophy. It would seem that he is a patriot who believed in the triumph of the Armenian nation and its spirit - a symbol of the young post-Soviet republic, which has yet to become the center of international Armenians.
But upon closer examination, it becomes obvious that behind the idealized personality of a pseudo-patriot, there is a figure of an ordinary fascist who divided society into categories.
In the world, the topic of the rehabilitation of fascist criminals (Nzhdeh collaborated during the Second World War with the leadership of Nazi Germany) evokes a reaction only at the level of the Foreign Ministry, as well as in expert and scientific circles. Decommunization in the post-Soviet space has gone differently everywhere, and few people pay attention to who is now considered a national hero in this or that former Soviet republic.
Nzhdeh "became famous" thanks to his ideology, in which he tried to concentrate and generalize the existing Armenian ideas about the family. In his, so to speak, works "Tsegakronutyun as a victorious force", "People professing Aryan courage", "Testaments and creeds of the Ethnover", he presented to the Armenians his version of getting rid of the feeling of a "disadvantaged nation". According to Nzhdeh, the panacea is constant moral self-improvement, coupled with persistent turkophobia. Young Armenians, deprived of their homeland, must awaken boundless patriotic feelings in themselves in order to resolve the "Armenian question". It is the youth in the cultural program of Nzhdeh that appears as a driving force, since it is considered a force for spiritual renewal.
For half of the misfortunes that fell on the heads of the Armenians, the Armenians themselves are to blame, which, according to the cultural doctrine of Ter-Harutyunyan, is divided into three large groups (sensually conscious layers): national-clan (completely devoted to the Armenian family, its history, language and culture ), hesitant (intermediate) and scum are those that cooperate with external enemies. The scum of the Armenian society in the works of Ter-Harutyunyan is also referred to as internal Turks, since a true Armenian cannot come to terms with his inglorious position.
Nzhdeh admits the division of society into categories, openly sympathizing with revanchist sentiments. The theory of the nation's purification and constant struggle is not limited in time and space, it does not take into account cultural and temporal peculiarities, does not take into account issues of international politics. This is a racial theory about the purity of the Armenians with a deep bias in traditional Armenian folklore. Nothing in Ter-Harutyunyan's ideology can be perceived as a true blessing, except for the self-defense of the Armenian people. The dogmas of the Armenian Apostolic Church are also erroneous, since they should speak of the masculinity of an Armenian, the ability to love and sacrifice oneself for the sake of the people, and not about universal Christian love.
The philosophy of Nzhdeh subordinates to itself religion, international and domestic politics, the issues of educating young people, and finally, the cultural policy of purification in relation to the Armenians who have stained themselves. Nzhdeh can be safely attributed to those historical figures in the history of the Armenian people who managed to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of entire generations. Numerous Armenian poets, musicians, singers, artists, including Harutyun Sayadyan (better known as Sayat-Nova), Hovhannes Tumanyan, Aram Khachaturian, Paruyr Sevak, Arno Babajanyan and many others, singing the praises of creation and creativity, never determined the fate of the Armenians as the fate surviving among the enemies of the people. But it was done by Garegin Nzhdeh, who instilled in the Armenians the inadmissibility of rapprochement with their neighbors.
