UAR calls on Azeris not to transfer elements of Karabakh conflict on Russian territory

PanARMENIAN.Net - "On May 1 a festival was organized in People Friendship University of Russia (PFUR), which aimed at symbolizing friendship and solidarity between the students of different nationalities who study in this higher institution. However the festival was overshadowed by a mass scuffle between Azeri and Armenian students. An Azeri student's attack on an Armenian girl with a Nagorno Karabakh banner on her shoulders became the first act of violence and the cause for further actions. Taking away the banner the assailant together with his friends tore it up. Then believing in their impunity Azeris with a whole group attacked an Armenian fellow who was also holding a banner. However they received a repulse which resulted in a mass fight," says the statement of Moscow City Council branch of the Union of Armenians in Russia (UAR) non-governmental organization.



The UAR Moscow City Council decisively condemns any actions based on national hostility and expresses its regrets to the PFUR university administration. The UAR Moscow City Council draws the attention of society and leaders of Azeri community to the circumstance that representatives of this community have committed hooligan acts running counter to the declared idea of the festival by provoking the above mentioned conflict.



"It is quite natural that during the festival, where every friendly association of people from the same area appears with its own symbolism, students from Nagorno Karabakh hold the banner, which symbolizes their Homeland. The Russian legislation clearly indicates the list of banned symbols. It is natural that the banner of Nagorno Karabakh is not included in that list. Here the status of Nagorno Karabakh has nothing to do with this case. Banners symbolize territories irrespective of their status. For example, all regions of Russia have their banners not being independent states. Proceeding from the above mentioned from the very beginning all efforts to drag the protocol of events of intergovernmental level to the order of student festival are conflicting and have no bases," the document underlines.



The UAR qualifies actions of Azeris who organized the mass fight in Moscow as a malicious provocative hooliganism, which became the original cause for the whole incident. "The Moscow City Council of UAR again and again calls on leadership and representatives of the Azeri community not to transfer opposition of our nations on the Russian territory. It is unacceptable to burden the Russian State and his nations with our problems. Transformation of any elements of the conflict to Russian soil must be under strict ban".