Anti-Semitism in Armenia

From the letter of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Mr. Ruben Shugaryan, dated May 16, 2003, to the Chairman of the Jewish Community of Armenia, Rimma Varzhapetyan: I want to assure you that the Armenian government unequivocally denies any manifestation of hatred towards other nationalities, which in itself is alien to the Armenian the people;

I received this assurance in response to my alarming letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia in connection with the fact that on the eve of April 24 - the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the genocide in Ottoman Turkey - representatives of the youth faction of the party: Dashnaktsutyun; They burned the Turkish flag with the Star of David on it. Then they staged a torchlight procession, taking fire from the burning Turkish flag, and shouting their indignation at Turkey and Israel, which do not recognize the fact of the Armenian genocide. One of the Yerevan Russian-language newspapers on the front page published a photo of this flag, as well as information about its burning. The Dashnaktsutyun party carried out the same action last year.

In his letter, Mr. Shugaryan assures that anti-Semitism cannot be seen in this incident. He writes: “You know the meaning of April 24 for the Armenian people. And individual emotional manifestations among young people in this regard do not express the attitude of the Armenian people towards our Jewish fellow citizens and the entire Jewish people, to whom we have always treated with respect and sympathy;

Manifestations of anti-Semitism in Armenia are indeed very rare, but they do occur.

In February last year, in the hall of the Yerevan House of Writers, the presentation of the book by Romain Episkoposyan "The National System", published in Armenian and Russian, took place. This book belongs to the author, whose name is not known to anyone in Armenia. It is conceived as a tool with which you can begin to form a kind of national system. Thus, the Turks are referred to in the book: the nation-murderer; and the Jews - the "nation-destroyer". In the chapter: The greatest falsification of the twentieth century; the author unfoundedly declares that the Holocaust is a myth.

The presentation of the book was attended mainly by the author's supporters, who enthusiastically welcomed its release. However, there was not a single positive response to it in the press. On the contrary, on the same day, the popular A1+ TV channel gave me the opportunity to speak live, express my deep indignation and concern and call on the Armenian public not to be led by false theorists. Soon the Russian-language newspaper Respublika Armenia published an article strongly condemning the book. But when I turned to Razmik Davoyan, adviser to the President of the Republic of Armenia, with a request to condemn this book that sows national discord and remove it from sale, my appeal was met with surprise and even irony. Mr. Davoyan remained indifferent to the request.

We can say that the situation with anti-Semitism is twofold. On the one hand, the city authorities responded positively to our proposal to establish a memorial in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and in 1999 it was opened in the center of Yerevan, and representatives of the Armenian public took part in the opening. On the other hand, after the harsh statements of a number of Israeli officials about the non-recognition of the fact of the Armenian genocide, we clearly felt anti-Semitic sentiments. A fascist swastika was painted on the mentioned memorial and on the doors of the office of the Jewish community, threats were made over the phone, comments were published in the press that were not only anti-Israeli, but partly anti-Semitic in nature. I would like to support Mr. Shugaryan in this matter. The Armenian society is extremely scrupulous about the fact of recognition or non-recognition of the genocide. In recent years, when many countries - Russia, France, Italy, Greece, Sweden, etc., as well as dozens of US states have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, Israel's categorical denial of it cannot go unnoticed.

In general, one cannot ignore the positive role of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, personally Minister Vardan Oskanyan and his deputy Ruben Shugaryan in resolving this situation and supporting the Jewish community on their part. It is important to note that after participating in the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Washington (May 5-11, 2003), I visited Los Angeles, where I was invited to speak live on the local Armenian TV channel. I took advantage of the opportunity given to me and addressed the audience with an explanation of the position of the Jewish community of Armenia on the issue of recognition of the genocide, and also spoke about the relationship with the citizens and the leadership of Armenia. My performance lasted over an hour and, judging by the calls to the studio, was received with understanding and approval. I hope these steps help us continue to feel safe.

It should be noted that the penetration of anti-Semitic sentiments into Armenia is largely due to the migration of Armenians to Russia and Ukraine, associated with a difficult economic situation. Children and young people who have never heard anything bad about the Jews now, returning to their homeland or coming on vacation, bring with them ideas of anti-Semitism that are not inherent in Armenian society. The so-called Youth Party even distributed Nazi literature imported from the Russian Federation.

The seminar on tolerance :Tolerance - the lessons of the Holocaust, which we held last year under the auspices of the EAJC, showed how important this topic is for Armenian general education schools. Some of the history teachers at the beginning of the seminar were very wary and unfriendly towards us. But the seminar ended with the words of their gratitude to the organizers and wishes to continue the dialogue about tolerance and mutual understanding. The Armenian side expressed its readiness to introduce a course of tolerance into the school curriculum, which we consider a serious achievement.

**Rimma Varzhapetyan,

Chairman of the Jewish Community of Armenia**