The meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO countries in Minsk ended with a signing of a statement in support of the UN General Assembly resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism. All foreign ministers, including the head of the Armenian foreign policy department, Edward Nalbandian, signed the statement. As a result, Armenia once again found itself in an ambiguous position due to the fact that, while supporting the fight against the glorification of Nazism, Yerevan continues to heroize Nazi criminals such as Garegin Nzhdeh and General Dro.
The Resolution of the UN General Assembly from December 17, 2015, "express deep concern about the glorification of the Nazi movement and former members of the Waffen SS, including by erecting monuments and memorials and holding public demonstrations in the name of the glorification of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism, as well as by declaring or attempting to declare such members and those who collaborated with the Nazi movement as participants of national liberation movements".
Armenia has been violating all the provisions of this resolution for years, creating a cult of personality to Garegin Nzhdeh as a "great Armenian patriot" in an attempt to "declare those who collaborated with the Nazi movement as participants of national liberation movements." The metro station and the square were named after Nzhdeh in Yerevan, in the spring of last year a monument was erected on the square in his honor, and this is " erecting monuments...in the name of the glorification of the Nazi movement "
At the same time, Armenia is one of the co-authors of resolution 70/139 - it voiced support of the CSTO countries to this document at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in 2015. Proposing to condemn the glorification of Nazi criminals and their accomplices, 5 months later Yerevan opened a monument to Nzhdeh, despite a negative international reaction.
The paragraph 6 of resolution 70/139 emphasizes that “any commemorative celebration of the Nazi regime, its allies and related organizations, whether official or unofficial, should be prohibited by States",12 as "such manifestations do injustice to the memory of the countless victims of the Second World War and negatively influence children and young people", and stresses in this regard that it is important that States "take measures, in accordance with international human rights law, to counteract any celebration of the Nazi SS organization and all its integral parts, including the Waffen SS".
Armenia, assuming obligations on paper, did the opposite thing. Moreover, a propaganda campaign was launched in foreign media, the purpose of which was to explain that Garegin Nzhdeh has almost nothing to do with the Nazis - trying to declare "those who fought against the anti-Hitler coalition and collaborated with the Nazi movement participants in national liberation movements".
If earlier Yerevan has only violated the resolution, then yesterday it condemned its actions by signing the CSTO statement in support of this UN document. It is interesting that the meeting preceded the interview of President Serzh Sargsyan, in which he assured that "the CSTO never made statements that could contradict the interests of Armenia." And he, the former head of the Karabakh separatists, the leader of the "war party" and the ideologist of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, is right: the condemnation of the glorification of Nazism does not contradict the interests of Armenia.
A year ago, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said in response to the question by Vestnik Kavkaza on the position of the Russian diplomats on the act of glorification of the Nazi war criminal in Armenia.
"Everyone also knows how we feel about any forms of revival and glorification of all manifestations of Nazism, neo-Nazism and extremism – it is recorded in international documents. So, it's unclear to us why such a monument was installed, as we all know of the immortal feat of the Armenian people during the Great Patriotic war," she stressed.
"At the same time, we will be giving our assessment of things which, in our opinion, incompatible with the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War – [we will be doing this] on a regular basis, regardless of politics, just as we did before. There are things which must remain inviolable, regardless of some biases - it is our fundamental attitude," the Foreign Ministry spokesman added.
