In late May the unveiling of a monument to Garegin Nzhdeh, who during World War II was a collaborator and actively cooperated with the military leaders of Nazi Germany, was held in Yerevan. At the time, the Moscow authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to such an outrageous event, given the strategic relations between Russia and Armenia. After nearly two weeks the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, finally answered a question about the reaction of the Russian side to the installation of the monument to the war criminal Nzhdeh in Yerevan. Zakharov noted that such an act of glorification of Nazism is incomprehensible in Russia.
‘’Everyone is aware of our attitude to the Great Patriotic War, our attitude towards any form of revival, and the glorification of all manifestations of Nazism, neo-Nazism, extremism. This attitude has been reflected in international documents. It is not clear to us why the monument was installed, because we are all aware of the immortal feat of the Armenian people during the Great Patriotic War, World War II," Zakharova said.
In justification of the Armenian authorities, Maria Zakharova said firmly that for Russia "the main indicator of official Yerevan's position on the issue of preserving the historical truth about World War II is its attitude to May 9th, the common Victory Day. Armenia is among the co-authors of the UN General Assembly’s traditional resolution, which is called "The fight against the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other forms of practices that contribute to the fueling of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."
In addition, Zakharova stressed that during the adoption of the resolution at the 70th anniversary session of the General Assembly it was the Armenian delegation that voiced the joint statement of the CSTO member states in support of this important initiative, "We believe that this is the official position of Yerevan and the Armenian people."
Finally, Maria Zakharova promised that the Russian Foreign Ministry, as before, will give its assessment of things that are not compatible with the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War on a regular basis, regardless of any political situation: "There are things that must remain inviolable, irrespective of any preferences, and so on. This is our basic attitude."
