Russia and The Armenian Genocide
Lragir.am
Politics – Tuesday, 09 February 2016, 11:24
Garegin Nalbandian, Geopolitical Club – Los Angeles – The recent articles, where many government officials of Russia suddenly started denying the Armenian Genocide, caused the curiosity to research and read the document adopted by the Russia’s GosDuma in order to understand what that document actually says.
Supposedly, on April 14, 1995, Russia’s GosDuma (Parliament) adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Unfortunately, the only link, http://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.151/current_category.7/affirmation_detail.html , was not a copy of the actual document. There are many Armenians, who want to read what the Russian document actually says about the Armenian Genocide or is it the imagination of some pro-Russia Armenian agents.
How is it that copies of the Kars Treaty, the Treaty of Sevres, and even older documents are available online, but a copy of Russia’s Resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide is not available in the World Wide Web (www.)?
Last April, when commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, Vladimir Putin among other Presidents, celebrities, and elite, visited Yerevan. Many Armenians were thrilled about Putin’s visit; however, his visit had nothing to do with the Armenian Genocide. In fact, Putin dishonored the Armenian Genocide when he paid his respects to one of the main criminals of the Armenian Genocide, the Father of all Turks, by visiting Ataturk’s grave on December 1, 2014, as part of his state visit to Turkey. “As we expand our cooperation, we will lower the price for Turkey, as our strategic partner,” stated Putin during the news conference following his state visit to Turkey. Here is the link, if anyone wants to read it. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/47126
Let’s examine what were the reasons behind Putin’s preference for attending the Armenian Genocide Centennial over the Turkish Battle of Gallipoli celebration. V. Putin was removed from the G8. Most leaders of the world’s known superpowers avoided him. Putin’s behavior caused Russia to be isolated from important economic and geopolitical processes. V. Putin knew that many influential people would be visiting Armenia to pay their respects to the genocide victims and to attend the events of the Armenian Genocide. Thus, Putin’s visit was to meet with the Presidents and the elite of the other countries who also went to Armenia, and it was a political networking event for him.
While the other visitors had the Armenian Genocide in mind, Putin’s visit was geared more towards marking Russia’s interests and presence in the region. It had nothing to do with the Armenian Genocide. The only sentence, where Putin said the word genocide, was when he said Russia is participating in conventions related to genocides. Putin called it Armenian tragedy, mass killings of Armenians. Putin reminded about how the Russians “saved” Armenians (by resettling Armenians in Circassian lands that Russians call Krasnodar)…
President Putin, just like President Obama, didn’t say the words Armenian Genocide in one sentence. In his speech he said the word genocide, he also said the word Armenians, but did not say the words Armenian Genocide. Putin spoke about Russia’s involvement to “prevent genocides.” Here is the link if anyone wants to watch his speech. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ_pYAb4s_o
I find Putin’s speech controversial because people who live in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, and the Caucasus would beg to differ. The truth is that the so called Russian-Armenian Friendship or Brotherhood is a myth. The history proves otherwise. Would brothers, friends, or allies do what the Russians did to the Armenians?
During the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), Armenians, were granted religious freedom to encourage them to settle in southern Russia where they established both viticulture (the wine industry) and sericulture (the silk industry) in the tsar’s domains. Horsebreeding, textiles, mining, and tobacco raising also were encouraged, as was the building of roads and canals. Obviously, Russia’s politics were geared towards resettling the Armenians in Russian lands.
During the 1722 through 1828, there were a series of Ruso-Persian wars, where Armenians, Georgians, and Alvanians (Alpans, or Lezgins and Udi people), were used by the Russians to fight against the Persian Army.
On September 2, 1804, the Russian soldiers of General Tsitsianov robbed Etchmiadzin (Vagharshapat).
In April of 1805, the Russian soldiers of General Nesvetayev robbed Etchmiadzin for the second time.
On October 1, 1827, General Paskevich tortured Armenian intelligentsia in the Yerevan Fortress, which the Armenians helped him conquer from the Persian Army.
During the 1827 through 1829, the Russians robbed the Armenian villages in Western Armenia leaving them without food and to the mercy of the Turks.
March 11, 1836, Polozheniye: Nikolai I of Russia ordered to limit the rights of the Armenian Opostolic Church.
On April 10, 1840, per a decree issued by Nikolai I, the territory that was annexed from Persia as Armenia, on March 21, 1828, was partitioned and renamed into several Gubernias (Provinces) of the Russian Empire. Thus, the name Armenia was erased in Russian maps.
In 1879, the Gubernator (Governor) of the Yerevan Gubernia in his annual report wrote that Armenian private schools do not serve as centers of education; therefore, the Armenian private schools should not remain in those private hands.
In 1885, 1897, and 1904, the Czarist Russia ordered to close the Armenian schools. Over 500 Armenian schools and 7 Armenian newspapers were closed in Armenian lands under the Russian Empire.
In 1890, Russia encouraged and supported Sultan Abdul Hamid of Ottoman Empire to annihilate the Armenians.
Czar Nicholas II, who came to the throne in 1894, continued his father’s policy of Russification. Anti-Armenian feeling among the Georgians was also on the rise, inflamed by the editor of the official newspaper Kavkaz (“Caucasus”), V.L. Velichko, who was an ardent Russian chauvinist.
During 1895 through 1896, due to the advancement and retreat tactics of the Russian Army, the Turkish Army massacres the Armenians who lived in Erzurum (Karin) and Trabzon.
In 1897, Czar Nicholas appointed the Armenophobic Grigory Sergeyevich Golitsin as governor of Transcaucasia, and Armenian schools, cultural associations, newspapers and libraries were closed. Armenian nationalism as practised by the Dashnaks, with their penchant for revolutionary violence and socialist economic policies, at first had little appeal for the Armenian bourgeoisie, but Russian cultural repression gained them more sympathy. The Russified middle-class Armenians began changing their names back to their Armenian form (e.g. Mirzoev became Mirzoian) and engaged private tutors to teach their children the Armenian language.
June 12, 1903, per the Czar’s Decree, the Russian Army took all properties and belongings of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
July 28 through 29, 1904, a group of 61 Armenian volunteers known as the Voskan Group were going from Eastern Armenia to Western Armenia, when they were suddenly caught under fire by the Russian soldiers of Pekov. Soon, the Armenians were surrounded by the Turk soldiers, the Kurd irregulars, and the Russian soldiers. The Armenians did not shoot at the Russians and even sent messengers asking the Russians not to shoot. The messengers were killed by the Russians. Nearly all of the Armenians, with the exception of a few who deserted at night, were killed in that battle.
During 1905 through 1907, the Czarist Russia organized pogroms against the Armenians and Udi Christians using armed cavalry units of Tatars and Turks.
In January 1912, a total of 159 Armenians were charged by the Tribune of People in Petersburg, Russia and sentenced. None of them survived.
On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government gathered and killed 600 of Armenian intelligentsia. In May, 1915, having the assurance that the Russian Army is on its way and will soon arrive in Van, 1,300 Armenians armed with weapons started an uprising as reaction to the April 24massacre. Instead of the Russian Army, the Turkish Army and the Kurdish irregulars marched against Van. The Armenian rebels defeated the
Turkish and the Kurdish forces. In June, 1915, the Russian Army under General Abatsiyev arrived and shortly after his arrival he disarmed all the Armenians. In July, 1915, Abatsiyev and his soldiers left Van. He took the rebels with him, leaving 55,000 unarmed Armenian civilians to be massacred by the Turks and the Kurds.
During the 1914 through 1916, as a result of the Russian Army’s intentional slow maneuvers to reach the Armenian hotspots, where the Armenian rebels were waiting for Russia’s support, the disarming of the Armenians and sudden retreats, helped the Turks execute the ethnic cleansing (the Genocide) of the 1.5 million Armenians.
On March 3, 1918, Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Per the Article IV of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, Russia recognized Western Armenia as lands that are part of Turkey.
On August 4, 1920, members of the Armenian Parliament, Arshak Shirinian and Vahan Khoreni were shot in Goris by the Bolsheviks. The information did not specify if they were shot by the Russian or Armenian Communists.
On August 24, 1920, Soviet Russia and Turkey signed a treaty to ratify the friendship and brotherhood of both nations.
On September 23, 1920, Russia encouraged Turkey to invade the Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA).
On November 29, 1920, in the midst of the war between Armenia and Turkey, the Soviet 11th Red Army invaded Armenia stating that they did it to defend the Armenian Communists.
On December 2, 1920, DRA became Armenia SSR.
During the December of 1920, and January 1921, Armenian intelligentsia and the leaders of the Armenian Army were arrested and killed.
On March 16, 1921, USSR (Soviet Russia) and Turkey signed the Treaty of Moscow. Per the Article III of the Treaty of Moscow, the USSR and Turkey instituted that Nakhichevan (Nakhidjevan) Oblast was to be annexed to Azerbaijan SSR.
On July 5, 1921, KovBureau decided to annex Artsakh (Karabakh) to Azerbaijan SSR.
On October 13, 1921, the USSR and Turkey signed the Kars Treaty, which further partitioned Armenia and established the current border between Turkey and Republic of Armenia, annexing the Armenian lands west of the Akhurian River and parts of the Ararat Valley (Surmalu) with the Ararat Mountain to Turkey.
In 1926, the Kremlin ordered the Armenian Apostolic Church to stop lamenting and the mass on April 24th.
In 1929 through 1949, Stalin ordered the shooting and the exile of thousands of Armenians.
During the World War II, 600 thousand Armenians went to defend the Soviet Union. 300 thousand of them died in battles because the Armenian divisions were sent to the most difficult battles. Two of the Armenian Divisions were the first to enter Berlin. Those who won the war, returned with many decorations and awards for their bravery and heroism.
On May 30, 1953, the Kremlin officially announced that the USSR has no land disputes with Turkey.
During 1966 through 1988, a new waive of arrests and exiles caused hundreds of Armenians
During 1978 through 1980, the USSR occupied Afghanistan. 3,762 soldiers and 400 officers were from Armenia.
During February 27 through 29, 1988, the Sumgait Pogroms.
In November of 1988, the Kirovabad Pogroms.
December 7, 1988, the Spitak Earthquake, which ruined the northern provinces of Armenia SSR. There are reasons to believe that earthquake was created artificially by detonating the underground missile systems. Here are the links if anyone wants to learn more about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Armenian_earthquake https://docs.google.com/presentation/
d/1i_zBoI8pFouI1LqItWyuMfrDk1vf4DvDwKaKCthe6TI/mobilepresent?pli=1&slide=id.p22
During January 13 through 19, 1990, the Baku Pogroms.
During the November of 1990 through May of 1991, Operatsia Koltso (Ring) was a joint operation of the Soviet 4th Army and the OMON of Azerbaijan SSR, which executed an ethnic cleansing against the Armenians in Northern Artsakh (Karabakh) tightening the ring all around and in Artsakh.
In 1991, after the fall of the USSR, the the weapons and the all of the property of the Soviet 4th Army were transferred to Azerbaijan Republic.
On June 13 through 15, 1992, the units of the Russian 23rd Division and the 104th Russian Airborne Regiments conquered the Shahumyan Rayon in Northeastern Artsakh (Karabakh).
In 1993, the Russian Federation voted for on 4 UN Resolutions: 822, 853, 874, and 884, condemning the liberation of and the sovereignty of Artsakh. Armenia’s “ally” – Russia voted against the Armenians on all four of those resolutions.
On May 12, 1994, Russia forced the ceasefire to stop the destruction of the Azerbaijan Republic. As a result, instead of having three friendly neighbors (Lezgistan, Avaristan, and Talishistan) Armenians have an opponent – Republic of Azerbaijan.
October 27, 1999, the killings of 9 members of Armenia’s Parliament. Per testimony of Litvienko and the London, UK, Criminal Court, those killings were planned and executed by Moscow.
From: 1994 to presently, Russia sold Azerbaijan 156 modern tanks, 456 artillery units, 1200 air defense artillery systems, 1100 anti-tank missiles, 90 military helicopters, 2 divisions of S300 “Favorit” air defense missile systems, 30 units of Smerch missiles, which can reach up to 90 kilometers and hit targets in Yerevan, 18 units of TOS-1-A “Buratino” systems, which are used to burn the infantry soldiers during the battle, as well as D30, D20 artillery units, “Msta-S” and “Vena” system, 1200 “IGLA” air defense missiles.
From: 2010 to presently, Russia sold Azerbaijan 90 units of Mi-17 and Mi-35m helicopters, 200 units of S-300PMU “Favorit” air defense systems with missiles, which covers a range of 200 kilometer radius (Armenia and Artsakh combined).
In November of 2015, Sergey Markov announced that Russia did not forgive the Armenian nationalists for Karabakh.
Many Armenians were and are still being attacked and killed in Russia for several reasons.
These facts raise a valid question: is Russia a friend or a foe for Armenia?
I know that many pro-Russia Armenians will say that it’s just business or they will accuse me for provocation of Armenia-Russia relations. My question to those is: do Armenians need that kind of relations with that country?
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