Monument to Russian-Armenian Friendship Desecrated in Budennovsk for Third Time

PanARMENIAN.Net - The monument to the Fathers -Founders of the town of Saint Cross has been for the third time this year desecrated in the town of Budennovsk of Stavropol region of Russia, Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia reported. This time the vandals pulled down and broke the Khachkar. The Armenian community and the Armenian Church are shocked by such vandalism. According to chairman of the town community Petros Mkrtchyan, the act was dated to the day of police. He said it's not the first case when the law enforcers treated the barbarism as children's tricks or hooliganism. "The Armenian community of the town is not going to reconstruct the Khachkar, is there are forces preferring to see not the monument but the ruins, let it be ruins," Petros Mkrtchyan added. Priest of the Armenian Church Ter Arsen Budaghyan shares this opinion.



To remind, the opening ceremony of the memorial to the Fathers - Founders of the town of Saint Cross took place October 17, 2004. The memorial is constituted of an 8-meter high arch, a Khachrar (cross stone) and a composition of stones. The bell mounted under the arch has gathered the flock of the Armenian Church for many years. For the first time the vandals desecrated the monument in February 2005. Another act of vandalism was committed in July 2005. Lanterns were broken, the Khachkar was damaged with fragments of concrete and dead body of a cat was thrown under the arch.



The experts think the incident can be a consequence of anti-Caucasian spirits on the whole or an act committed by satanists. There is also opinion that the vandals pursue the objective to tense the national relations in the town, since the complex to the Fathers - Founders is perceived as the monument to the Russia-Armenian Friendship