Stavropol Newspaper Justifies Vandals, who Desecrated Armenian Headstones

PanARMENIAN.Net - the Stavropol Pravda in its December 15, 2005 issue explained the vandalism at the Nadezhda village cemetery of Shpak district in its own way, reported the Yerkramas newspaper of Armenians of Russia. According to journalist A. Rashidova, "a competent source has reported not everything is unambiguous in the desecration of graves. There allegedly are facts available that Armenians, whose headstones were disfigured by the malefactors, were buried over... Russian graves. I.e. initially local Russian population graves had suffered and it might have caused pogroms at the cemetery." Thus, the newspaper in fact justifies the vandals.



It should be reminded that 14 Armenian graves were desecrated on the night of December 6. The malefactors poured acid on the marble gravestones. The Prosecutor of Shpak district of Stavropol region, who took the investigation of the case under his control said, "We consider hooligan actions as a version of the crime, as well as an attempt to disseminate inter-ethnic hatred. It is not ruled out that the malefactors destroyed the graves based on national hatred."