"On 25 January 2005 the General Prosecutor's Office in Armenia announced the arrest of the chairman of the small ultra-nationalist Union of Armenian Aryans, Armen Avetisian. Avetisian was charged with inciting ethnic intolerance ("inciting national racial or religious hostility," Article 226 of the Armenian Criminal Code) for making repeated antisemitic statements. Avetisian will face 3-6 years imprisonment if found guilty. His supporters have established a committee in his defense, maintaining that the real reason behind his arrest is his fight against homosexuality. In an interview with the weekly IRAVUNK in January 2005, Avetisian promised to make sure that the Jews were expelled from Armenia.
Members of the small Armenian Jewish community, who until recently had not been confronted with antisemitism, are alarmed over the rise in antisemitic propaganda since 2004, when Tigran Karapetian, owner of the private pro-government TV station ALM, used a talk show to disseminate antisemitic views, portraying Jews as dominating Armenia and the world and blaming them for Armenia's political and socio-economic problems."
Source: Yerevan Press Club, January 2005; Armenian News network, 26 January 2005; Eurosianet, 29 January 2005; Armenialiberty news, 25 January 2005; TruthNews, 26 January 2005.
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“ANTI-SEMITISM IN ARMENIA”, By Rimma Varzhapetyan,
Chairman, The Jewish Community of Armenia
“It is possible to say that Anti-Semitism in Armenia is characterized by juxtaposing forces. On the one hand, the city administration reacted positively to the proposal to erect a memorial for victims of the Holocaust. In 1999, the city administration was open to the idea of a Yerevan center, and Armenian community representatives participated in the opening ceremony.
On the other hand, we feel anti-Semitic sentiments as a result of Israel’s bitter statements of non-recognition regarding the Armenian genocides. In the days following Israel’s statement, the fascist swastika appeared on the aforementioned memorial and the doors to the Jewish community. The press published anti-Israeli comments that took on a slightly anti-Semitic tone.”
“It is important to note that the appearance of anti-Semitism in Armenia is mainly the result of Armenian immigrants who moved to Russia and Ukraine in search of better economic prospects. Children and young people had never harbored negative perceptions of Armenian Jews in the past, but now immigrants are returning back to Armenia with new anti-Semitic ideas that were previously alien to Armenian society. The so-called Youth Party even distributed Nazi literature, which came from Russia.”
To read the full story please visit: http://www.eajc.org/program_art_e.php?id=6
2006
Remembering The Orly Attack
