ArmInfo. For the Armenian people who survived the genocide, the Great Patriotic War is of particular importance. Armenia did not follow in the footsteps of some post-Soviet republics and did not forget this important fragment of its thousand-year history.
The chairman of the standing commission on regional and Eurasian integration of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Mikayel Melkumyan, said this at the "Memory and Actual Meaning of the Great Victory: 74th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War"conference.
He noted that the protection of the homeland for the Armenian people has always been at the genetic level: "For us, the Soviet Union was a common homeland." The MP reminded that from the first days of the war the Armenian people with other nations of the Soviet Union rose up to defend their homeland. From June 1941 to May 1945, about 500.000 Armenians were drafted into the Soviet army, of whom 300.000 were natives of Soviet Armenia and 200.000 from other Soviet republics.
"This is an impressive figure, considering the fact that, as of 1939, the population of Soviet Armenia was 2 million. The Armenian people in this war gave 64 generals and 5 marshals, 106 heroes of the Soviet Union, more than 300,000 Armenian sons died or went missing And according to the number of heroes of the Soviet Union, Armenians occupied the honorable 6th place after Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Tatars and Jews, "Melkumyan recalled, quoting Marshal Zhukov's words about Armenians:" In the victory over fascism, Armenians, beginning with the ordinary and ending with the marshal immortalized and the names are not the fading glory of courageous warriors. "
He also noted that representatives of the Armenian Diaspora also actively fought in the ranks of the allied armies against fascism: "For example, about 20,000 Armenians fought only in the ranks of the American army." In the postwar period, the Soviet peoples were together engaged in the restoration of the homeland destroyed by the war. According to the MP, the use of the rich experience of cooperation of that time may be useful in building a new model of integration in the post-Soviet space. "This is our common history and our common victory. Unfortunately, today individual states and political leaders are trying to revise the results of the Great Patriotic War and replace real heroes with fake heroes.
The Soviet Union fought the world-wide plague called fascism. And today from the Nazis make heroes. This cannot but worry us, "said Melkumyan. He noted that common history, common heroes and a single humanitarian space are united by members of the EAEU:" The EAEU will develop thanks to our common history and I, as the chairman of the standing committee on regional and Eurasian integration, I will make every effort to develop our union, "he concluded.