Saturday, June 11 2016 05:17

During the first Armenian Republic Garegin Nzhdeh defended the country's population from aggression by armed groups of Azerbaijan, a state that had just appeared on the world map in that period. He organized defense of Armenian territories including Zangezur, Spokesman of Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan wrote on his Facebook page commenting on the remark made by Russian Foreign Ministry's Official Representative Maria Zakharova. 
The Spokesman of Armenian Foreign Ministry recalled that squares, streets, underground station are named after Nzhdeh in Armenia and monuments are erected for his heroic struggle against Turkish aggressors. 

"And of course it is quite clear why opening of the new monument to general Nzhdeh lead to a great number of sponsored publications in Azerbaijan as a direct result of Azerbaijan's pretensions for the territory of Armenia repeatedly voiced by the Azerbaijani President. Baku's attempts to cast a shadow on Armenian people's invaluable contribution in defeat of fascists are immoral and fruitless", Babayan wrote.

Earlier, Official Representative of Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated at today's 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.  Garegin Nzhdeh was one of the key political and military leaders of the First Republic of Armenia (1918- 1921), and is widely admired as a charismatic national hero by Armenians. It was due to Nzhdeh that Armenia retained Syunik region in earlier 1920ies. 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 was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment (to begin in 1944).