By Trend
Despite recent changes in Armenia, fascism and antisemitism
remain a concern, the article published by The Jewish Press said,
Trend reports.
The article said that that American journalist Patrick Lancaster
had encountered an Armenian man representing a nationalist
organization in Republic Square in the capital Yerevan, who was
going on an anti-Semitic tirade.
According to the recording, which was published on social media,
the man was saying, “The swastika is the symbol of the
Indo-European Aryan people. Hitler killed Jews because they engaged
in incitement. They have bloody money. No difference, Jews are very
harmful. If rats live in your house, will it be good? Did you know
that in 1915 the Armenian genocide was organized by Jews?”
The same Armenian man reportedly also called Gypsies a “parasite
nation” in the recording.
The report said that according to a 2014 ADL survey, some 58
percent of Armenians have anti-Semitic tendencies and prejudices,
but 90 percent of Armenians stated that “the Holocaust did actually
happen.”
The article also cited the anti-Semitism report published by
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs that said: “The war between
Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region has led to a
worrying rise in the level of antisemitism on the part of the
Armenians, which has come amid criticism of political cooperation
and security trade between Israel and Azerbaijan. Political
criticism was soon replaced by attacks on ethnic-religious
backgrounds and accusations against Jews of alleged historical and
contemporary crimes against the Armenian people. The war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, led, in extreme cases, to the only example from
the past year of new anti-Semitism. Reports that Israel supplies
weapons to the Azerbaijani army provoked outrage among the Armenian
population and in some of the demonstrations held in Armenia,
antisemitic slogans were chanted. The Prime Minister of Armenia has
accused Israel of supporting the Armenian Genocide.”
Arye Gut, who heads the Azerbaijan House in Israel and the
Israel branch of the Baku Multiculturalism Center claims that “the
popularization of fascism, anti-Semitism, and neo-Nazis has become
an integral part of Armenia’s state policy,” and says the
ethnoreligious teaching of Garegin Nzhdeh (1886-1955), who
supported Nazi Germany during WW2, is included in Armenia’s current
educational curriculum, the report said.
In an exclusive interview with The Jewish Press, Rabbi Zamir
Isayev, who heads the Jewish School in Baku, added: “Some try to
explain their Nazi ideas by blaming the Jews for the Armenian
genocide, which has no connection. When you try to explain this,
then you agree with these ideas. When someone thinks that they
throw out and kill the Jews, you have the same idea towards other
nations too. Anti-Semitism is the problem not only of the Jews but
all the world. He probably hates other nations too.”
Rabbi Isayev believes the Armenian people must stop following
Nazism and glorifying past pro-Nazi leaders.
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