YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reacted to the speech of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the session of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Ashgabat.

Pashinyan stated that Aliyev’s remarks contain attempts to distort the history.

“Unfortunately, we saw such attempts in the remarks of Ilham Aliyev. Listening to his assessments on Garegin Nzhdeh, frankly I remembered the Kidnapping, Caucasian Style film where there is a talk about the ruins of an ancient castle, and question is asked “so what, have I also destroyed the church?” There is an impression from Aliyev’s statement that in general Hitler played a secondary role in that war, and the leader of the Nazi movement was Garegin Nzhdeh. But the reality is that Garegin Nzhdeh was fighting against Armenia’s Turkish occupation, against the genocide of Armenians which was organized by Turks”, Pashinyan said, once again emphasizing the importance of knowing the objective assessment of the history.

“It is stated that Garegin Nzhdeh has died in the Vladimir Prison. Many Soviet figures have died in the Vladimir Prison, and so what, all those who were convicted in the 1937-1950s, should be considered as people’s enemies? And if that is so, many famous figures were convicted and spent the last days of their life in prison. But this doesn’t mean that we must accept this as a fact. And I consider it inappropriate to use this format to distort the history, create some tension during this very important session”, the Armenian PM said.

Pashinyan noted that the Armenian government pays special attention to the war veterans, just few months before the social fees provided to all veterans of the Great Patriotic War doubled.

“From the Declaration we will sign today I would like to highlight the parts which emphasize the necessity to make joint efforts to restore the broad international dialogue aimed at strengthening the international security, opposing the dividing lines, the actions leading to formation of mistrust, tension. And I also believe that during such format summits we should do everything possible not to increase the tension between our peoples, our countries, but quite the contrary, to be able to find ways for dialogue, compromise, mutual trust and respect. I think the words of the Azerbaijani President are first of all disrespectful for the Armenian people. And I also believe that his words are disrespectful towards the leaders of the countries and the peoples they represent here”, Nikol Pashinyan said.

The Armenian PM once again thanked the Turkmen leadership for the successful chairmanship in the CIS and expressed hope that the joint efforts aimed at improving and strengthening the multilateral cooperation within the CIS will continue. He also reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to provide support to the Uzbek partners during the 2020 chairmanship in CIS.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan