Tuesday, June 14 2016 12:35

 Zaruhi Postanjyan, Armenian lawmaker from the Heritage Party, thinks that it is not for Russia to decide to whom Armenia should erect monuments. 

"Russia should understand that Armenia is an independent and sovereign state and it is beyond Moscow's scope to make assessments about the monuments to Armenian heroes, especially when these assessments have nothing to do with the reality," Postanjyan told reporters. She stressed that Russia should first of all get rid of its own stain - Lenin's body at the Kremlin's Mausoleum. "It is due to Lenin - the evil center for the mankind and especially for Armenian people - that Armenia's borders narrowed," the MP said, noting that it was Lenin that gifted the Armenian lands to Turkey and Azerbaijan.           

Postanjyan also admits that the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's statement about the erection of Garegin Nzhdeh monument in Yerevan can be considered in the context of Moscow's intention to use this argument to please Baku. "One should not forget that Nzhdeh defended Armenians from the Azerbaijani massacres and organized the defense of Armenia's territories, including Zangezur. In the meantime, the erection of the monument caused indignation in Baku. Russia, which seeks to involve Azerbaijan in the Eurasian space, is trying to please Baku," she said.  Earlier, Official Representative of Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated at a briefing that everybody knows Russia's stand on display of any form of rebirth and glorification of fascism, neo-Nazism and Nazism. It is strange for us that the monument to Garegin Nzhdeh was erected in Yerevan, as we all know Armenia's heroic participation in the Great Patriotic War, Zakharova noted.  To recall, on May 28 a monument to Garegin Nzhdeh, hero of the Armenian national liberation movement of early XX century, was unveiled in the park adjacent to Republic Square Metro Station in Yerevan.  Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan and Nzhdeh's great-grandson Armen Babayan and other high-ranking officials attended the ceremony. Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan (1 January 1886 - 21 December 1955, better known by his name de guerre Garegin Nzhdeh) was an Armenian statesman and military strategist. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, he was involved in national liberation struggle and revolutionary activities during the First Balkan War and World War I. 

During World War II Nzhdeh suggested supporting the Axis powers if the latter would make a decision to attack Turkey. Operation Gertrud, a joint German- Bulgarian project about attacking Turkey in the event that Ankara joined the allies, was largely discussed in Berlin. The Armenian military unit, which was supposed to be used against Turkey was sent to the Eastern front, to the Crimean peninsula, in 1943.  Nzhdeh requested the detachment's return, and terminated his connections with Nazi Germany. On 9 September 1944 Nzhdeh wrote a letter to Stalin offering his support were the Soviet leadership to attack Turkey. A Soviet plan to invade Turkey in order to punish Ankara for collaboration with the Nazis and also for returning the occupied Western Armenia territories was intensely discussed by the Soviet leadership in 1945-1947.The Soviet military commanders told Nzhdeh that the idea of collaboration was interesting but in order to be able to discuss it in more details, Nzhdeh would have needed to travel to Moscow. He was transferred to Bucharest and later to Moscow, where he was arrested and held in the Lubyanka prison.  After his arrest, Nzhdeh's wife and son were sent to exile from Sofia to Pavlikeni. In November 1946, Nzhdeh was sent to Yerevan, Armenia, awaiting trial. At the end of his trial, on 24 April 1948, Nzhdeh sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment (to begin in 1944).