Parliament rejects opposition’s WWII victory anniversary statement

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia’s National Assembly rejected a draft statement proposed by the opposition "I Have Honor" faction on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. The bill was introduced on May 27 by faction secretary Tigran Abrahamyan.

The proposal justified the statement by noting that the 80th anniversary is being marked with symbolic events in many countries, according to 1lurer.am .

“This draft not only deserved a positive assessment from the Foreign Relations Committee but also the full chamber’s support. It concerns a major victory, the undeniable contribution of the Armenian people and their children to that victory, which turned a seemingly tragic future into hope, light, victory, and the preservation and rise of Armenians in this region,” said Abrahamyan.

Hasmik Hakobyan, the rapporteur from the ruling Civil Contract faction, said the text artificially links two events separated by 47 years—the victory in WWII and the liberation of Shushi.

In the vote, 27 deputies supported the statement, 54 opposed, and 2 abstained. The motion was rejected.

Following the vote, Arman Yeghoyan, chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration, took the floor to share his views, as reported by 1lurer.am .

He emphasized that the victory over fascism and Nazism is undeniable and remains a significant chapter in human history, but he raised a question for the bill’s authors.

“Soviet historiography refers to the Great Patriotic War as the conflict that began 1 year and 10 months after WWII started—a part of the global war, specifically between the USSR and Germany. This is how it’s framed from the Soviet perspective.

How do you evaluate the USSR’s cooperation with Nazi Germany during the period between the start of WWII and the Soviet-German conflict? Particularly the USSR’s military actions against six European states—Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania—under that cooperation?

In these cases, the USSR gained territory from Finland, fully occupied Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, took half of then-Poland, and seized large parts of Romania, which is now Moldova. How should we label these actions? Were they right or wrong?” Yeghoyan asked.

In response, Tigran Abrahamyan said he did not consider it appropriate to engage in assessments of such historically contentious issues, which have long been subjects of differing geopolitical interpretations.