Russian ambassador to Armenia sends open letter to Armenia`s minister  of defense over ex-spokesman`s statements 

ArmInfo. Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin wrote an open letter to Defense Minister Suren Papikyan against the backdrop of the odious statements made by former press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan about the Great Patriotic War on the air of Armenia  Public Television.

In a message published by the embassy press service, the Russian  diplomat highly appreciated the anniversary events held in Armenia on  May 9, which received broad public support. According to him, the  residents of the Republic, both the older and younger generations,  came to the military memorials at the call of their hearts to honor  the memory of 600 thousand Armenians who went to defend the  Motherland, 300 thousand of whom did not return home.

"Against the background of deep respect for the Victory Day among the  Armenian people, the historically false and blasphemous statements of  the former official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the  Republic of Armenia A. Hovhannisyan, with the actual justification of  the aggression of Nazi Germany, voiced by him on this holy date on  the main television channel of the country, caused widespread  indignation.

It was especially painful to hear such statements from the lips of a  person who now heads the Command and Staff Institute of the Military  Academy of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, which  bears the name of the famous commander of the Great Patriotic War,  twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal Baghramyan.

It is difficult to assess such an act as anything other than an  attempt to desecrate the memory of our heroic ancestors who did not  allow the implementation of Hitler's plans to enslave and destroy the  peoples of the USSR, and also saved humanity from the "brown plague,"  the diplomat wrote.

Earlier, the former official representative of the Armenian Defense  Ministry, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, who stated on Public Television that  the victory of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War would have  been "more useful" for the republic. According to Hovhannisyan, the  Battle of Stalingrad prevented Operation Gertrude, which assumed an  invasion of Turkey with the participation of Armenian legions after  Germany captured the Caucasus. "If this had happened, the Germans  from Armenia and Bulgaria would have invaded and captured Turkey, and  this program also assumed the creation of a united historical  Armenia," he said.  This caused a wide public outcry. Citizens were  outraged by such a distortion of historical facts by an Armenian  officer. The opposition even demanded that a criminal case be opened  regarding Hovhannisyan.