Armenia-Israel friendship monument desecrated in Yerevan

16 February 2021 12:50 (UTC+04:00)

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By Vafa Ismayilova

A monument erected as a sign of friendship between Israel and Armenia has been desecrated in Yerevan, Vestnik Kavkaza said, quoting social networking platforms.

Telegram distributes photographs of the memorial installed almost 12 years ago on the Armenia-Israel Friendship Alley in one of Yerevan's parks. Inscriptions on the memorial say "Armenia-Israel Friendship Alley, 20.03.2009, Yerevan" in Armenian and English. However, they are covered with bright red paint, the report added.

Earlier, a monument dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust was desecrated in central Yerevan.

Anti-Semitism and disrespect for Holocaust survivors is nothing new in Armenia.

On the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, Armenians installed a monument to Nazi accomplice Garegin Nzhdeh in Khojevend, the area still in the zone of Russian peacekeepers' responsibility in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Soon after this incident, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry issued a statement urging Armenia to refrain from the policy of ethnic and religious hatred.

"Ethnic and religious hatred has no future, and these ideas can be a disaster for the state and the people who promote it. Armenia must refrain from these dangerous tendencies and make efforts to establish international peace, cooperation, and prosperity. Undoubtedly, this will benefit Armenia, the region, and the international community,” the statement said.

The ministry also focused on Israel's Diaspora Affairs Ministry's annual report on the rise of anti-Semitism in the world, including Armenia.

The ministry stressed that Baku has many times raised concern over the propaganda of Nazism in Armenia and the glorification of fascism. It recalled Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s speech at the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State in 2019 that was based on specific documents and evidence.

According to Pew Research Center’s report in 2016, Armenia is the most anti-Semitic country in the Eastern and Central Europe with one-third of the country’s population not accepting Jews as Armenian citizens.