A symposium dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Patriotic War is being held in Moscow on the initiative of the ruling United Russia party. Representatives of various parties cooperating with United Russia from both the former Soviet Union and several dozen foreign countries have been invited. Eduard Sharmazanov, Tigran Abrahamyan and Hayk Derzyan from the Republican Party, as well as Iveta Tonoyan, Arman Abovyan and Luiza Sargsyan from the Prosperous Armenia Party are participating in the symposium from Armenia.
“The symposium was held without incident until the representative of the ruling government of Azerbaijan spoke, and, unlike all the other speakers who spoke exclusively about the participation of their countries in the victory over fascism, they tried to somehow connect the episode related to Nagorno-Karabakh to the topic, presenting it as the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. They also indirectly accused Armenia of occupying Artsakh, clearly distorting history,” Tigran Abrahamyan said in an interview with 168.am, emphasizing that in his speech, member of the Supreme Body of the RPA Eduard Sharmazanov, in addition to the participation of the Armenian people in the Patriotic War, also touched upon the statements of the Azerbaijani delegate, aimed at clearly distorting historical facts. “On the one hand, factually, on the other hand, Eduard Sharmazanov presented the reality quite harshly: what actually happened in Artsakh, what crimes Azerbaijan committed, what violations of international law took place, aggression against Artsakh, etc., which clearly did not please the Azerbaijani delegation, which tried to intervene from the floor. Moreover, if before the speech of the Azerbaijani delegate, the Azerbaijani delegation participated in the composition of two people, then, noticing that the Armenian side was preparing to make a response speech, the adviser to the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Russian Federation joined the event, who tried to take on the task of responding to the topic, but our delegation did not allow this to happen. Our colleague Iveta Tonoyan, who also had a speech planned, responded to the Azerbaijani delegation, reacting quite sharply to the statements of the Azerbaijanis distorting historical realities,” Tigran Abrahamyan emphasized.
He noted that the Azerbaijani authorities, of course, used the moment to make anti-Armenian statements on various platforms, but after the Armenian authorities recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan became more unbridled.
“The Azerbaijanis are trying to hide their crimes against humanity, international crimes, ethnic cleansing, blockade and use of force. In this case, they were clearly caught off guard by the rather harsh and targeted speeches of the Armenian delegation,” Abramyan said.
According to him, the interests of the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities coincided. “It is no longer a secret for anyone that the Armenian authorities serve the Azerbaijani agenda, including in the Artsakh issue, and the Azerbaijani side also uses this on various international platforms to carry out its counter-propaganda against Armenia in a much more cynical, much more unbridled manner.”
By the way, unlike the Azerbaijani side, not a single representative of the Armenian Embassy in Russia took part in the symposium.
“Initially, it was planned that Eduard Sharmazanov would speak on behalf of the Republican Party of Armenia, and Iveta Tonoyan on behalf of the Prosperous Armenia Party. After the speech of the Azerbaijani delegate, they somewhat edited their speeches. After Sharmazanov’s harsh speech, the symposium moderator called for not continuing the topic any further, especially since it was obvious that Azerbaijan was essentially trying to disrupt the symposium with its provocative actions, but in this situation, the second delegate representing Armenia, Iveta Tonoyan, used her speech in the current rather difficult situation to put the Azerbaijani delegation in its place. In a fairly balanced speech, she refuted the clearly untrue statements of the Azerbaijani side, aimed at presenting the audience with obvious disinformation. At the end of the symposium, the organizers of the event turned to the Armenian delegation to figure out what actually happened.