WARNING: NAZISM!

On May 7, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a report titled 'On the situation with glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance', which includes, in particular, the following passage: “…the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) has taken steps to commemorate such a controversial nationalist political figure as Garegin Nzhdeh who has been reported collaborating with the Third Reich."

Region Plus has repeatedly covered the problem of glorification of fascist supporters in Armenia and the actual transformation of Nazism into the official ideology of this country. In the last six months, the magazine has published a series of my articles based on declassified documents of the Soviet special services, which prove that Nzhdeh used to collaborate with the special services of Nazi Germany. These publications have attracted considerable attention both in Azerbaijan and around the world. The truth was finally confirmed officially by Russia, even if all the statements were wrapped in slippery diplomatic phrases.

One of the sections of the above report of the Russian Foreign Ministry concerns Azerbaijan and is based on four main theses, which are very positive, informative and indicative. First, it says that there are practically no manifestations of neo-Nazism, racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia in Azerbaijan. Secondly, the leadership of Azerbaijan positions the country as 'a state fostering tolerant co-residence of representatives of various nations and religions.' The third thesis was obviously formulated just before the V-Day: 'Azerbaijan shares the same approach with Russia when it concerns the preservation of the historical memory of the contribution of the Soviet people to the victory over Nazism and opposition to any attempts to falsify the history of the Second World War and to glorify Nazism.' Finally, the report says that according to the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, commission of crimes based on national, racial and religious hatred shall be recognised as an aggravating factor in determining the penalty. In other words, in combating the glorification of Nazism, spread of neo-Nazism and other types of practices that contribute to fuelling of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, the positions of Moscow and Baku are consistent, identical and symmetrical.

In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry underlines that last year Azerbaijan supported the resolution of the UN General Assembly "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance." At the same time, the ministry refrained, either diplomatically or shamefully, from admitting the fact that in previous years Azerbaijan abstained from voting on the same UNGA resolution, because Armenia had always made statements on the position of the CSTO member states on this issue before or after the voting. Obviously, Azerbaijan could not show solidarity with the resolution for apparent geopolitical reasons concerning the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Today, however, the Russian Foreign Ministry recognises Azerbaijan as a prosperous state with rich cultural, intellectual and spiritual traditions. Whereas the main and only ally of Russia in the Caucasus, Armenia, is caught up in nationalism, chauvinism, xenophobia and extremism, which are prohibited by international laws, although it occasionally makes very streamlined statements using diplomatic language. Moreover, Baku has repeatedly provided the Russian Foreign Ministry with copies of documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, which clearly indicate that Garegin Nzhdeh was an agent of SD, a Nazi organisation recognised at the Nuremberg Tribunal as criminal. Therefore, Nzhdeh was a Nazi criminal per se.

Yet Moscow is not ready to recognise this fact overnight, since it can raise a very hard-hitting question: why has Russia supported, albeit tacitly, the nationalisation of Armenia for so long? Certainly, the political elite of Russia tries to circumvent the issue, and therefore the Foreign Ministry chose a streamlined formulation by regarding Nzhdeh as a political figure "who has been reported collaborating with" Nazis.

As to Armenia, the report indicates that Sasna Tsrer, registered as a political party in Armenia in the autumn of last year, is one of the nationalist political organisations of Armenia. Its ideology is based on the refusal to recognise the Republic of Armenia, as it is “a product of a criminal Russian-Turkish conspiracy” (Treaty of Moscow, 1921), and the struggle for the “creation of a new state”. “Among the declared goals of the party are the creation of a new Armenia, including both the current territory of the country and Nagorno-Karabakh, unification of Armenians living outside their homeland through a national referendum, as well as the reclamation of Armenian authority over Nakhichevan and the areas west of the Akhurian River." At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry recalls that in July 2016, a group of Sasna Tsrer supporters attacked a police regiment in Yerevan, killing two policemen. Nevertheless, the party secured 1.82% of the votes in the parliamentary elections last December. We will just add that, as a terrorist organisation, it should not have received the official status of a political party. But, of course, this is an internal affair of Armenia.

No one would imagine that the Russian Foreign Ministry could treat Armenia this way almost two years ago, especially in comparison with Azerbaijan. Until recently, there was no clear reaction from the Kremlin to the facts of glorification of Nazism in Armenia, especially after the installation of a monument to Nzhdeh in Yerevan and assigning the names of Nzhdeh and Dro (another fascist intelligence officer of Armenian origin) to a number of streets and squares of Yerevan and other cities of Armenia. Two and a half years ago, when asked about the installation of the monument to Nzhdeh in Yerevan, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, made a confusing statement about the right of Armenians to determine their own national heroes from among the Nazi collaborators. Today the situation has changed. It is not as radical as we would like to see, but still a decision.

I believe that Yerevan is now suffering from a moral and intellectual shock caused by the report of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In fact, it is a completely clear message to Armenian politicians and all Armenians in general that from now on the Russian political establishment, however pro-Armenian its stance is, views RPA, which has been openly founded on nationalistic and pagan ideology, as almost a fascist body, in which no one in Russia is interested. In other words, for the Russian diplomacy RPA is no different from the terrorist and outright extremist Sasna Tsrer party. Kremlin treats both of them equally, albeit implicitly. In fact, the Kremlin gave a green light for political laceration of ex-presidents Kocharian and Sargsyan in Armenia, which greatly simplifies the task of Pashinian in de-nazifying his country. That's exactly what he said recently to Chancellor Merkel during his official visit to Germany, comparing the internal political situation in Armenia with the situation in Germany in 1946, when the International Military Tribunal over Nazi criminals was held in Nuremberg.

At the same time, the statement of Russian authorities is a transparent hint to the incumbent political elite of Armenia, whose moves the Kremlin finds difficult to understand sometimes. It is about the readiness of Russia to restore full contacts with Armenia on the same grounds as before (when the Karabakh clan was in power), if the Pashinian government is able to clear Armenia of the most odious and radical structures. This primarily concerns the terrorist group Sasna Tsrer, which is partly a brainchild of Pashinian himself, and RPA, which has now become his main opponent. In other words, the Kremlin makes a proposal on a Chinese draw with Yerevan, when the chessboard is clean of all the pieces and the parties agree to restart the game but with an option to select political actors who can survive the shutdown. Moscow gives Pashinian a chance to clean up the political field of Armenia from all sorts of radicals. We can only wait if Pashinian has enough willpower and resources to play the game without much ado.