The Caucasian world is very fragile and its relations are very difficult. Sometimes a gesture is enough to destroy those things that had been achieved before.
Herman Rostovtsev, independent expert, especially for Vestnik Kavkaza:
"Exactly a century ago the saddest events in the history of the Armenian people took place. Thousands of Armenians were killed ... killed without any reason. I sincerely sympathize with the relatives, co-religionists and citizens of Armenia. It is always hard to lose relatives, even if it was a hundred years ago. One century has passed. In this time it is very difficult to do something for all humanity, although during this century submarines were made, people began to fly in space, the Great Patriotic War took place, electricity became an imprescriptible part of human life, new countries appeared, people became more educated and probably more civilized.
Who, how and what can be charged with a committed crime? People should not forget things like that, they have to remember what has been done. At least in order not to repeat it once again. But they should not give high-sounding names to these actions, confer a nationality on them. It is wrong. It's like throwing a dry twig on a blazing fire. Because during World War II the Nazis committed crimes, not Germans. Later, the German people, in the person of their Chancellor, apologized to the civilized community, repented of it. It does not come to anyone’s mind in Russia to go back to the time of the Mongol yoke and look for the perpetrators of the genocide. We know a lot of similar examples in history: Catholics and Protestants – the French, who committed the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the Americans and the native Americans, the British and the Indians. We can name the familiar events for a long time, up to the Vikings who raided the coast of England. All this is not forgotten and written in books, textbooks and on the internet. It is obvious that to raise a hand against a neighbor is a crime.
The Jews are those who more than anyone else know what intolerance towards others means. They have suffered the Holocaust tragedy, but they do not make a public show of this and do not separate people according to a national priority. They are just in mourning. They pay tribute to the millions of their citizens who lost their lives at the whim of villains, who did not understand that the world is not divided into black and white, that all people are children of the earth, and that they all have equal rights, regardless of where and under what sky they were born.
The 24th of April is a typical day for any Russian citizen, for a resident of Moscow. What is it significant for? Armenians were waving their flags and shouting out obscure slogans, blocked highways and it made the situation in Moscow more complicated. A convoy was moving along the Garden Ring unauthorized rallies. Is this a tribute to the memory of the victims? It is not. It is more like a nationalist outrage, when the citizens and admirers of Armenia are trying to assert their obscure rights, rules, habits, traditions in the capital of a country that became their home, but all the same another country.
They act regardless both of the political situation in Russia, and of the that effect can be caused by their demarche, or even of the fact that the authorities will have to react to illegal actions. It is difficult to describe these tactless actions as friendly, the main aim of which is to satisfy only their own ambitions. But who, if not extreme nationalists in Armenia, should think about what they are doing? A little over twenty years have passed since a crime against a neighboring nation. The Khojaly tragedy is known to the world community. People who demand the recognition of the genocide are criminals and invaders of foreign territories. How can this be reconciled with justice? We cannot help seeing the roots of Nazism? What right have those who commit such crimes to justice, common understanding and condemnation?
The Caucasian world is very fragile and its relations are very difficult. Sometimes it is enough a gesture to destroy a pyramid that had been built before. I'm sorry that Russia is being used again as a mediator in order to save a very fair situation in the region. Perhaps no one is allowed to rewrite history, it should be written only once.
Exactly one hundred years ago the Armenian people suffered a loss, and it is too difficult realize all the bitterness of this loss. It should be a lesson for all of us. Crime has no nationality. One man, a hundred, a thousand or a million – it does not matter. We keep in our memory, but cannot keep silence. The main thing is a desire for remembering – sincerity, purity of thoughts and a great responsibility to the people."
