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Vestnikkavkaza.net, 30.05.2016
Opening of the monument to Garegin Nzhdeh in Yerevan, a war criminal, who led the Armenian SS legion during the Great Patriotic War requires immediate reaction from Moscow through diplomatic channels, Director of the Institute of Political Studies, Sergey Markov, political analyst Oleg Kuznetsov, and President of the national strategy Institute Mikhail Remizov said in an interview with a 'Vestnik Kavkaza' correspondent.
According to Sergei Markov, it is a monstrous act. "The opening of the monument to Garegin Nzhdeh means there are some powerful forces in the Armenian society, which are aimed against Russia, because it is Russia which is the main winner over the Nazi Germany. The establishment of collaborationist forces that served the Nazis is a heinous crime that goes beyond all acceptable formats. It requires from Russia a decisive response, demanding to stop the glorification of Nazi collaborators,'' he said.
"No merits can justify a collaboration with the German Nazism and, thus, participation in it monstrous crimes, including the genocide of the Russian people, which was one of the main goals of the German. Moscow must demand from Yerevan to stop the policy of glorification of Nazi criminals. This demand must be always on the table of the Russian-Armenian negotiations,'' he concluded.
Above all Oleg Kuznetsov recalled the undeniable details of the history of Garegin Nzhdeh and his teammate Andranik 'General Dro' Drastamat. "These two actively participated in the creation of the Armenian legions that were in the Wehrmacht in the beginning , and later in 1944 they were transferred to the army units of the Waffen SS, which are prohibited in accordance to the decision of the International Nuremberg Tribunal and was proclaimed as criminal military organization. All those who were involved in these units are automatically considered war criminals without the statute of limitations," the historian pointed out.
Thus, the opening of the monument to General Njdeh means the rehabilitation of fascism in Armenia, which is unacceptable from the point of view of modern international law. "This step is not only internally, but also externally motivated, which shows that the political regime of the Karabakh clan Kocharyan-Sargsyan is ready to worsen the international situation in order to mobilize the Armenian society and support the current state of affairs in the country. In fact, we can say that Armenia is introducing some kind of self-isolation in order to save the power. The current president and his circle are becoming more and more similar to the political regime in North Korea," Oleg Kuznetsov said.
Mikhail Remizov said that with by such actions Armenia deliberately tries to distance itself from Russia and its official history. "I am talking about several ‘favorite’ national grudges. One of them is associated with the fact that the young Soviet republic of Armenia lost a substantial part of its territory. In addition, the tradition of Armenian nationalism, as it was formed at the beginning of the XX century, is not very loyal and sympathetic to the Russian historical imperial project. Certainly, this does not mean that the policies will move in line with the historical squabbles, since Armenia has very limited freedom of geopolitical and geoeconomic maneuver,'' the analyst said.
Yerevan also tries to show its dissatisfaction with Russia for its position during the latest escalation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The level of irritation is extremely high in the Armenian society. This irritation is unjust and ill-founded, in my opinion, as Russia made serious diplomatic efforts to prevent the military conflict from intensification. Maintaining the status quo is more advantageous for the Armenian side rather than Azerbaijan. Arms sales to Azerbaijan do not play any role from a practical point of view because Baku can purchase it form other countries. That is why it [the opening of the monument] is rather a grudge than political common sense. As a result, we have a very negative background for the Russian-Armenian relations,'' Mikhail Remizov concluded.
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