Are Russians to blame for the Armenian Genocide?

18/08/2006

According to Apsny.ge web page, Armenian historian Rafael Hambardzumyan has accused Russia of perpetrating the Armenian Genocide. “Russia and Turkey are both guilty for the Armenian Genocide”, said the historian. According to R. Hambardzumyan, when speaking about the Genocide we should speak about one important thing that has been prohibited to speak about until now. According to the historian, 30 years before the Genocide, Golicin said a slogan in Russia saying that “they need Armenia without Armenians”. “I will be satisfied as soon as I see a skeleton of an Armenian in the historical museum of Tbilisi to show that some time ago Armenians lived in that region”, said Golicin according to the historian. Besides that, he says that the Russian foreign affairs minister of 1985 supported the Turkish sultan to annihilate Armenians and said, “annihilate them, your highness, annihilate them”. According to R. Hambardzumyan, Russia has always used Armenians to satisfy its strategic needs in the region. According to him, during WWI, Russia attempted to help Turkey and for that purpose it sent 200.000 Armenians to the border to fight and the purpose of the contract between Turkey and Russia in 1921 was annihilate the Armenian state. “You can’t find any Armenian writers or politicians that were not oppressed by the Russian government”, said R. Hambardzumyan.