We are no longer surprised by the demolition of Soviet monuments in Poland, the equating of Bandera in Ukraine with the heroes of the Second World War, and parades of SS veterans in the Baltic states. Let this continue to resent us, but, probably, to some extent, we have “reconciled” with this. But do you know that the glorification of fascism takes place not only there, but in neighboring and, as we continue to believe, allied Armenia?
In 2016, a monument to the new national hero of the Republic, Garegin Nzhdeh, was erected on the main square of Yerevan. Why new? Because in the days of Soviet Armenia, Nzhdeh was considered a collaborator, one of the founders of the Armenian SS Legion. However, first things first. Let's see who Garegin Nzhdeh is and "what's wrong with him"?
"Aryanism, courage - this is the religion of your generation, young Armenian"
Garegin Nzhdeh
In the 1930s, the Armenian military man, who once served in the tsarist army, Garegin Egishevich Ter-Harutyunyan, who later took the short pseudonym Nzhdeh, developed the teaching of tsehakronism - a nationalist ideology, according to which the highest value for an individual is his nation, outside of which he cannot can fully exist.
It seems to be a sound idea - to love the motherland, to be part of the nation and to preserve their original culture. It seems to be ... if it were not for the similarity in thoughts with another remarkable "author", who at that time was starting his journey in Germany. So, in his teaching, Nzhde divides Armenians into three types: Tsekhamard, Joghovurd and Takank. The former are the best part of the Armenian nation, the latter are a vacillating and undecided crowd, far from eternal ideals and goals. Still others are “anti-general shaitans”, the internal enemy of the clan in the Armenians themselves, part of the external enemy. These are spineless and disgusting people who do nothing useful for the state. A familiar idea?
This is very similar to the racist concept of mensche and untermensch - man and subhuman. By the way, one of Garegin Nzhdeh's "works" is titled "My Credo": even in the title there is an analogy with "Mein Kampf". Another text of the "hero" of Armenia is called "The people professing courage-Aryanism." Yes, Aryan! Back in the 30s, Garegin Nzhdeh sought cooperation with Hitler, and in order to get a loyal ally in the Caucasus, the Third Reich had to recognize the "Aryan origin of the Armenians." However, we are getting ahead of ourselves a little.
"The native land of one people cannot become the permanent homeland of another"
Garegin Nzhdeh
In 1919, after the Russian Empire ceased to exist, Garegin Nzhdeh decides to fight for the creation of an independent Armenia. In September of the same year, he arrives in Zangezur (South-East of Armenia) and begins to carry out a violent "Armenization" of the region, expelling the remnants of the Azerbaijani population from there and brutally suppressing uprisings in 32 local Azerbaijani villages.
The “hero” himself said that he “dedicated himself to the cause of the physical protection of endangered Armenians.” However, even the former secretary of the government of the first Republic of Armenia, Hovhannes Devedjyan, later admitted that Garegin Nzhdeh was used by the government "to clear Zangezur from Azerbaijanis, and then to fight against the Red Army."
Garegin Nzhdeh, like the German National Socialists, considered the Bolsheviks to be “organic enemies”, and therefore, when the Red Army entered Armenia, he revolted. In Zangezur alone, the Soviet authorities left 12,000 soldiers dead. But this was only the beginning of the war that Nzhdeh declared to the Soviet Union.
"Whoever dies for Germany dies for Armenia"
Garegin Nzhdeh
In 1921, Nzhdeh fled abroad. First to Persia, then to Bulgaria. For some time he lives in the USA, until he finally settles in Germany, where he begins cooperation with the highest representatives of the Third Reich.
Now among the Armenian intelligentsia it is customary to say that, they say, in fact, Nzhdeh was forced to agree to such cooperation in order to protect Armenia from a possible attack by Turkey and restore the independence of the Republic from the Soviet Union. However, the documents declassified by the CIA, in accordance with the law on the disclosure of Nazi crimes, tell a different story. On September 1, 1945, the Armenian weekly Armenian Mirror-Spectator published a document in the US, according to which the National Council of Armenia appealed to the Nazi Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories, Alfred Rosenberg, to turn Soviet Armenia into a German colony. Among the members of the Council was Garegin Nzhdeh.
However, the mere fact that Garegin Nzhdeh voluntarily began to cooperate with the Nazi regime and became one of the founders of the Armenian SS Legion is enough. The fighters of this formation participated in the occupation of the Crimea and the Caucasian offensives.
In October 1945, Garegin Nzhdeh was arrested by SMERSH and sent to prison in Lubyanka. He died in 1955 in the Vladimir prison.
"If you want to see the future of a nation, look at its youth"
Garegin Nzhdeh
25 years after the collapse of the USSR, Nzhdeh was again remembered in Armenia. But not as a collaborator, but as a “national hero” and… a philosopher. The country began to name streets and squares in his honor, erect monuments, make films, and publish books with his sayings. Here, for example, is a quote from "My Credo": "There should not be a single day without a fight with the Turk." Well, you understand, right? This is not the Soviet agitation “Beat the fascist reptile!”, Not “We will ruthlessly defeat and destroy the enemy!”. There is direct hatred for a particular nation.
Of course, the revival of the "cult" of Nzhdeh in Armenia did not go unnoticed. The reaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry was relatively restrained, but straightforward: “Everyone knows very well our attitude to the Great Patriotic War, as well as to any form of revival, glorification and any manifestations of Nazism, neo-Nazism, extremism. These relations are fixed in international documents. It is not clear to us why this monument was erected, because we all know about the immortal feat of the Armenian people during the Great Patriotic War, World War II,” said the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova.
What are the documents the diplomat is talking about? For example, resolution of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly 71/179 “Combating the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” The foreign ministers of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) recalled that "the ongoing targeted efforts to rewrite history, distort and revise the results of World War II, attempts to glorify Nazism and militant nationalism" are a "direct violation" of the above resolution. in their joint statement on July 17, 2017.
Some time after the installation of the monument, a petition appeared on change.org demanding that the monument be removed. The signatories are mostly the grandchildren of those who went through the war and do not agree with the opinion that "Nzhdeh is the greatest humane philosopher and commander of all times and peoples." Fascism, in fact, is not as far away as it seems, see Armavir residents ask to remove the memorial plaque to the Nazi accomplice.
One can argue with this statement, but perhaps one should agree with Nzhdeh's words, put in the epigraph of this block about the future of the nation and youth. This is one of the few quotes worth accepting. The only pity is that the new Armenian generation can do it in their own way. It seems that Armenia is writing its own alternative history for him. But why be surprised? Russian schools in Armenia began to close immediately after the collapse of the Union, and by 2000 they remained only on the territory of the garrisons of Russian military personnel. That is, the Armenian government did everything to prevent Armenian children from studying in Russian schools.
The elite of the state are actively trying to convince modern Armenian youth that Garegin Nzhdeh is the savior of the nation. And, paying tribute to the time when he fought for independence from the Soviet regime, they turn a blind eye to the facts of cooperation with the Nazi regime.
Is it fair? If so, then any betrayal and any crime against humanity can be justified. Though General Vlasov, even Hitler himself, he also wanted a better life for his people. How it all ended, we remember well.
This is a video from the opening of the monument. One of the high-ranking officials says: “It seemed that the qualities of the Armenians disappeared, but the generation that was born and grew up during the years of independence showed itself in April of this year. Nzhdeh as a phenomenon, as an Armenian type in terms of returning to the roots, has become a reality today.” What is this "Armenian type" and "return to the roots"?
The April events on the Artsakh front provoked a powerful propaganda attack on Russian-Armenian relations. It also affects the fact that in Russia there are very few real specialists in Caucasian studies, or, more specifically, Armenologists. Accordingly, propaganda from the opposite side, represented by such gentlemen as Sergei Markov, Oleg Kuznetsov, etc., who always have a convenient platform for all sorts of insinuations, for example, Vestnik Kavkaza, intensified. It would seem that Vestnik Kavkaza is a Russian resource registered by Roskomnadzor, but hatred of Armenians has become the cornerstone of its information policy. It's hard to say how the close-knit ranks of the Markovs, Kuznetsovs, Shevchenko ended up being far from an amateur - the director of the Institute of National Strategy Mikhail Remizov. Another thing is strange: on the same barricades with this company were those representatives of the Russian political science and scientific community who often visit Yerevan, participate in various scientific and practical conferences, and in Moscow behave in such a way that, God forbid, none of them not suspected of engagement.
No one disputes the neutrality of their position. But even the slightest knowledge of the Armenian mentality, our common history of the first quarter of the 20th century should have saved them from the temptation to take revenge for the anti-Russian actions that take place with frightening frequency in Armenia and have a bad tendency to move from quantity to quality. In Russia, these processes are perceived as an unforeseen misunderstanding or intrigues of the US State Department. In this vein, it seems, the deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party Maxim Shingarkin "worked" through the Internet portal "Russian Planet". This time he took up not the ecology or the problems of the "Tula proletariat", but the issue of erecting a monument to Garegin Nzhdeh in Yerevan. It should be noted that the views of Garegin Nzhdeh underlie the ideology of the Republican Party of Armenia.
The opening of the monument to the “Nazi criminal” (as it is written in the article in Vestnik Kavkaza) Garegin Nzhdeh in Yerevan was perceived by Shingarkin and his associates as an occasion to deepen the emerging differences between Armenia and Russia on some topical issues. The same “Vestnik Kavkaza” brought this topic to the briefing of the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zakharova, and it should be noted that the experienced diplomat did not follow the lead of those who from the “city of lights” Baku are tasked with finding weaknesses in the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance.
The question arises: where will we go in the war with monuments and national memory, confusing tactics and strategy, not distinguishing between strategy and tactical concessions? Is it possible to blame Kutuzov for the surrender of Moscow, and only the great Zhukov for the "Vyazemsky cauldron" and belittle their merits? Or, for example, is Russia ready to delete General Yermolov from its history, because the period of his Caucasian activity as, conditionally, the Governor-General of the Caucasus is not liked by individual representatives of the North Caucasian peoples who are trying to rewrite history in their own way? Maybe the comparisons are wrong.
The Armenian people do not have figures of such magnitude - the scale of the country is different. But the undisputed heroes of the Armenians are Bagramyan, Isakov, Babadzhanyan, Madatov, Bebutov, Ter-Gukasov. At the same time, the entire post-Soviet space is filled with monuments to the people who were behind the creation of the first concentration camps or generously handed out primordially Armenian territories, and Armenians remember this generosity. All Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, is sick with the paranoia of the war with monuments. We also seem to have lovers of such a war.
Why is this campaign started now? The metro station "Garegin Nzhdeh" and the square of the same name in Yerevan have existed since 1992 (the station named after the Bolshevik Spandaryan was renamed). Why were these gentlemen silent all these years and why did the question arise right now?
We also note the obvious gaps in the campaign: Garegin Nzhdeh never led the Armenian Legion, as the “well-wishers” from VK wrote. This legion, unlike, for example, the Latvian SS Volunteer Legion, the SS Grenadier Division "Galicia" or the Estonian and Lithuanian Waffen-SS Grenadier Divisions, was never structurally part of the SS ("guard detachments"), but was subordinate to the command headquarters of the Eastern Legions Wehrmacht, that is, the armed forces. It is clear that this is not essential for the layman, but such blunders are unacceptable for specialists, if this is not a deliberate distortion of facts. Note that the Nuremberg Tribunal did not recognize the Wehrmacht as a criminal organization, unlike the SS, SD, Gestapo, etc.
The Armenian Legion (11 battalions) was formed in Poland in the summer of 1942. However, as Hitler told the Reich Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories Rosenberg, he trusts only Muslims, and does not trust Georgians and Armenians. Accordingly, as unreliable, the legion was sent to Holland, and not to the Eastern Front. Only one battalion was sent to the Crimea against the Red Army. At the same time, the fighters of the legion, at the first opportunity, ran across to the Soviet side. In France, on the basis of this legion, a partisan detachment was created, which was also led by former legionnaires.
As a result, the Armenian Legion did not cause any tangible harm either on the Western, or even more so on the Eastern Front, which, of course, does not relieve its fighters of responsibility for treason. It should be noted that, according to the statements of the leaders of the legion, they tried in this way to rescue Armenian prisoners of war from German concentration camps.
Garegin Nzhdeh was not a citizen of either the Soviet Union or Soviet Armenia. From the buffer state formation of Lernaayastan, “Mountainous Armenia”, created in the south of Armenia by him, he emigrated through the territory of Iran. The issue of his citizenship needs clarification, but most likely he could have been a citizen of Bulgaria or had the right to reside there from 1922 to 1944. This is also supported by the fact that it was in Bulgaria that he married. Bulgaria signed the so-called Berlin Tripartite Pact and from September 1940 to September 1944 fought against the Allies on the side of Germany. Thus, Garegin Nzhdeh could not be a traitor to the Motherland or a collaborator either by definition or from a legal point of view.
Armenia is proud of the significant participation of its sons in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and the Great Victory. And yet, what place does Garegin Nzhdeh (real name - Ter-Harutyunyan) occupy in Armenian history? In Armenia, he is remembered as a prominent figure in the Armenian national liberation movement. For the information of the Russian reader: Nzhdeh participated in the 1st Balkan War on the side of the Bulgarians as a commander of an Armenian company. For participation in the defeat of the Turkish corps, Yaver Pasha received Bulgarian and Greek awards and the title of "Hero of the Balkan peoples." During the First World War, he was the deputy commander of the 2nd Armenian Volunteer Detachment in the Russian Army. He is a holder of the orders of St. Vladimir, St. Anna, two St. George's crosses.
From the point of view of the consolidation of Armenian lands and the formation of the Armenian statehood, the merits of Garegin Nzhdeh are undeniable. Thanks to the struggle of a handful of brave men under his leadership, Armenia retained its southern region - Zangezur, which, in an indestructible frenzy, the "comrades of the Bolsheviks" were going to throw into the furnace of the "world revolution" after Karabakh and Nakhichevan - in order to please Kemalist Turkey, hand it over to the "Azerbaijani brothers", solving their "strategic tasks" at the expense of the Armenian lands. The fate of Garegin Nzhdeh is the fate of the Armenian people. Foreign lands, foreign countries and the eternal struggle for the lost Motherland.
In 1944, when the Soviet troops approached Sofia, he could freely leave Bulgaria. As a journalist, he was to be received by neutral Switzerland. Of course, he could live in abundance and prosperity until the end of his days somewhere in Geneva, in Fresno or in Beirut. But he went the other way. Why? Because he was sure that the Soviet Union would certainly start a war with treacherous Turkey, and both his knowledge and his experience would be useful in this war. The situation of this period set up just such a scenario. Being confident in just such a development of events, Garegin Nzhde conveyed his proposals to Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin, who was chairman of the Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria.
He was taken to Moscow, allegedly to present his proposals to Stalin. In Moscow, he was arrested. However, he was transferred from Moscow to Yerevan, where, according to the recollections of former NKVD officers, he took an active part in the formation of an agent network in Turkey. However, the situation in the world changed, and Stalin's plans to punish Turkey were put on hold.
Garegin Nzhdeh ended his days in a terrible prison for especially dangerous criminals, which is known as the "Vladimir Central". Thus was the fate of this extraordinary man.
In the post-Stalin period, Nzhdeh was rehabilitated posthumously.
Institute of Political and Social Studies of the Black Sea-Caspian Region
Born in the family of a priest in 1886 in the village of Kznut, Nakhichevan district. He received his primary education at the Russian school in Nakhichevan and continued his studies at the gymnasium in Tiflis. In 1902, Nzhdeh entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Despite excellent academic performance and an undoubted talent in jurisprudence, after two years of study he leaves the university and devotes himself entirely to serving the ideals of the national liberation movement. Having joined the Dashnaktsutyun Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARFD) in 1904, he moved on to armed struggle against the Turkish occupiers and political work among the Armenian population.
Participation in the freedom movement
Having moved to Salmas (Iran, on the border with Turkey), he studies there at a military school organized by the Dashnaks with officer Knyazhevsky. In 1907, with the help of leaders of the Macedonian movement associated with the Dashnaks, he entered the officer school named after. Dmitry Nikolov in Sofia, from which he graduated, having received the rank of second lieutenant of the Bulgarian army. At the end of it, in the same year, he joins the partisan detachment of Murad and at the same time joins the Dashnaktsutyun, accepting the party pseudonym Nzhdeh (“Wanderer”). Takes an active part in the Iranian revolution. In 1909 he returned to the Caucasus to buy weapons and ship them to Iran, but was arrested by the Russian authorities. He went through the process of the Dashnaks in 1912, was released and returned to Bulgaria.
Founder of the "Tsegakron" movement.
Participation in the Balkan War
On September 23, 1912, in view of the outbreak of the 1st Balkan War, he volunteered for the Bulgarian army. As a Bulgarian reserve officer, he was instructed to form a company of Armenian volunteers. He formed and led a company of 229 (later 272) people, in which Andranik fought, who, in the words of L. D. Trotsky, was “the soul of the detachment”. Trotsky describes the performance of the company as follows:
On November 15, the company defeated the Turks at the village of Megramli, for which Nzhdeh received Bulgarian and Greek awards, as well as the title of "Hero of the Balkan peoples." During the war he was wounded. Participated in the 2nd Balkan War, in which he was wounded.
World War I
With the outbreak of the First World War (1914) and the announcement of an amnesty for the Dashnaks by Russia, he appeared at the Russian embassy in Sofia with an offer of his services. He was appointed deputy commander of the II Volunteer Detachment (Armenian formations as part of the Russian army - the detachment commander was Dro). In early May 1915 he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree and St. Anna of the 4th degree for the battles in the Berkley Gorge and at Sheikh-Kara. In July 1915 he was awarded the St. George Crosses 3 and 2 degrees for battles in the Magreod Gorge.
Since May 1917 he was the city commissioner in Alexandropol (Gyumri)
First Republic
In May 1918, he covered the retreat of the Armenian troops from the Kars region, fighting at Aladzha; At the same time, Garegin Nzhdeh managed to take out the excavation materials of Professor Marr from Ani. On May 26-28, 1918, Nzhdeh commanded in the battle near Karakilisa (Vanadzor), stopping the superior forces of the Turkish army. In this battle he was again wounded. Awarded the Order of Courage. With the formation of the Republic of Armenia, he is engaged in the formation and training of the Armenian national army.
Activities in Zangezur
On September 4, 1919, he was sent with his detachment to Zangezur (Syunik), for which, with the support of England, he made claims to Azerbaijan. Nzhdeh was appointed to lead the defense of the southern region of Zangezur, Kapan, while the defense of the northern region, Sisian, was led by Poghos Ter-Davtyan. In my own words, “from that time on, I devoted myself to the cause of protecting and saving the Armenians of Kapan and Arevik from destruction, repelling the constant attacks of Musavatist Azerbaijan and Turkish pashas Nuri and Khalil.” The offensive of the Azerbaijanis was stopped by the Armenians in early November near Geryusy. In early December, Nzhdeh occupied the Geghvadzor Gorge with a fight, in his own words, "destroying the resistance of 32 Tatar villages", which became a "disaster" for neighboring regions. In March 1920, the Armenian-Azerbaijani war resumed throughout the disputed regions (Zangezur, Karabakh, Nakhichevan). On April 28, Baku was occupied by the Red Army, and Soviet power was proclaimed there; in early July, the Red Army invaded Zangezur, and in the middle of the month fighting broke out between it and the Armenian forces. On August 10, 1920, an agreement was signed between Soviet Russia and the Republic of Armenia, according to which the disputed areas were occupied by the Red Army. Fearing that Zangezur might then come under the control of Soviet Azerbaijan, Nzhdeh did not recognize this agreement and refused to leave Zangezur (unlike Dro, who was the former commander in Zangezur). In early September, Kapan was occupied by the Reds, and Nzhdeh with his detachment was pushed back to the Khustupk mountains (near Meghri, ancient Arevik), where he fortified himself, taking advantage of the inaccessibility of the terrain. His position was difficult, and he sent appeals one after another, bitterly reproaching the Kapans for treason. However, at the beginning of October 1920, a mass uprising against the Soviet regime began in Zangezur, which Nzhdeh immediately led (along with Ter-Davtyan, and after the death of the latter - alone). By November 21, two brigades of the 11th Red Army and several Turkish battalions allied to it (a total of 1,200 Turks) were defeated by the rebels, and Zangezur was completely liberated. On December 25, 1920, a congress held in the Tatev Monastery proclaimed the "Autonomous Syunik Republic", which was actually headed by Nzhdeh, who took the ancient title of sparapet (commander in chief). The leadership of Soviet Armenia announced a reward for the head of the "head of the Zangezur counter-revolution" "adventurer Nzhdeh". The February uprising in Armenia drew back the forces of the Bolsheviks, giving Zangezur a break for a while; in the spring, with the defeat of the February uprising, the rebel forces retreated to Zangezur. By that time, Nzhdeh had extended his power to part of Nagorno-Karabakh, uniting with the rebels operating there. On April 27, 1921, the entity under his rule was proclaimed the Republic of Mountainous Armenia, and Nzhdeh headed it as prime minister, minister of war and minister of foreign affairs. On July 1, Upper Armenia adopted the name of the Republic of Armenia, as a continuation of the First Republic; Simon Vratsyan, the prime minister of the latter, was declared its prime minister, and Nzhdeh was declared the minister of war. However, soon the Soviet troops went on the offensive, and on July 9, Nzhdeh left for Iran with the remnants of the rebels. He himself believed that with his defense he saved Zangezur from the fate of Karabakh and Nakhichevan, transferred by Soviet Russia to Azerbaijan. This opinion was shared by the Armenians of Syunik, among whom the name Garegin is still the most popular.
Emigration and collaboration with the Nazis
After the fall of the Republic of Armenia, Nzhdeh emigrated from the country along with the Dashnaks. In exile he lived in Bulgaria, taking Bulgarian citizenship. In the summer of 1933, Nzhdeh moved to the United States. There he intended to help K. Tandergyan in the liquidation of the Turkish ambassador Mukhtar Bey. Upon arrival in the United States, he took up the formation of the youth organization "Dashnkatsutyun" - Armenian Youth Federation () (Federation of Armenian Youth). In 1937, he broke with the Dashnkatsutyun and in 1938 was formally expelled from it at the congress (the first exception was in 1921, but Nzhdeh was later reinstated). Then he moved to Germany, where he joined the Nazi movement and reached the rank of general. ((subst:AI))
Established contacts with the leadership of Nazi Germany, hoping to convince Germany to attack Turkey. Subsequently, he meets with Reich Minister A. Rosenberg, participates in the Caucasian bloc of representatives of emigrant organizations of the Caucasian peoples, on the platform of supporting Germany, as the future "liberator of the Caucasus from Soviet domination."
In 1942, together with Dro, he participated in the formation, from predominantly Armenian prisoners of war of the Red Army soldiers, Armenian units as part of the German armed forces [page not specified 195 days].
Subsequently, in a letter to Stalin, he explained his cooperation with the Nazis with two motives - anti-Turkish and the desire to save the Armenians from the fate of the Jews (the Germans began to take discriminatory measures against the Armenians in the Balkans).
Arrest and imprisonment
When the Soviet troops approached Sophia, Nzhde refused to leave Bulgaria, not wanting to expose his organization to a blow. In addition, he hoped that the USSR would soon declare war on Turkey and he would be able to take a direct part in this war. After the entry of the Soviet troops, he wrote a letter with this proposal to General Tolbukhin. On October 9, Nzhdeh was summoned to the Soviet mission, where he was informed that he had to leave for Moscow in order to personally make his proposal to the leadership. On October 12, he was arrested by SMERSH and sent to Moscow, to the internal prison of the MGB on Lubyanka, from where in 1946 he was transferred to the Yerevan prison. Nzhdeh was accused of counter-revolutionary activities, primarily of participating in the "anti-Soviet" uprising in Zangezur and the massacres of communists during this uprising (this accusation angered him extremely, since back in 1921 an amnesty was announced to the Zangezur rebels). He was tortured by insomnia, but not by physical force (since at the first meeting with the investigator, he, according to his own statement, told him “that an attempt at the slightest physical violence against me would cause a response on my part in the same form that I would be forced to kill me"). On April 24, 1948, by a special meeting at the MGB, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was sent to the Vladimir prison. In 1952-53 in the prison of Yerevan, then transferred to Tashkent, from where again to the Vladimir prison, where he died on December 21, 1955.
Grave of Nzhdeh
His brother, Levon Ter-Harutyunyan, was refused to bury Nzhdeh in Armenia, and only clothes and watches were given out of his personal belongings. Nzhdeh was buried by his brother and a sign was placed on the fenced grave: Ter-Harutyunyan Garegin Yegisheevich (1886-1955). On August 31, 1983, the remains of Garegin Nzhdeh were transported to Armenia by linguist Varag Arakelyan. In 1987, he was reburied in the courtyard of the Spitakavor church. Gladzor, Vayots Dzor region (before that, the ashes were kept in the basement of Varag Arakelyan's country house). However, in his will, Nzhdeh expressed a desire to be buried at the foot of Mount Khustup in Syunik (Kapan). This wish was fulfilled only in April 2005. The funeral ceremony took place at the monument to G. Nzhdeh at the foot of Mount Khustup (part of the ashes of Nzhdeh remained in Spitakavor: since there is also a place of pilgrimage - said deputy Serzh Mkrtchyan, who was one of the organizers of the funeral ceremony ).
Compositions
- "The struggle of children against fathers" (1927)
- "Seven commandments to my companions"
- "Autobiography"
- "Ethnover"
- "A people professing courage-Aryanism"
- "My credo"
- "Open letters of the Armenian intelligentsia"
Garegin Nzhdeh(Arm. գարեգին նժդեհ, real name - Garegin Egyvich Ter-Arutyunyan, Arm. գարեգին եղիշեի տեր-հարությունյան; January 1, 1886 - December 21, 1955) - Hero of the Armenian National Liberation Movement of the early 20th century, Armenian military and statesman.
The founder of cehakronism - the concept of the Armenian nationalist ideology.
During World War II, he collaborated with the Third Reich.
Youth
Born in the family of a priest in 1886 in the village of Kuznut, Nakhichevan district, Erivan province. At baptism he was named after Arakel. He received his primary education at the Russian school in Nakhichevan and continued his studies at the gymnasium in Tiflis. In 1902, Ter-Harutyunyan entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. But after two years of study, he leaves the university.
In 1906, Nzhdeh moved to Bulgaria. There he enters an illegal military school, which was established in 1907 at the suggestion of one of the leaders of the Dashnaktsutyun party, Rostom Zoryan. More than 400 Armenians and Bulgarians were trained in it, who were trained in military affairs and prepared for revolutionary activities in the territory of Turkish Armenia and Macedonia.
After graduating from this educational institution, he returned to the Caucasus, where he joined the partisan detachment of Murad Sebastatsi and joined the ranks of the ARF.
In November 1907 he went to Persia as an officer and took an active part in the Persian revolution. In August 1908 he returned to Kznut.
In September 1909, Nzhdeh was arrested by the tsarist authorities (“The Case of the Dashnaktsutyun Party”, 163 Dashnaks were arrested) and placed in prison. He served and was interrogated in 4 prisons: a prison in the city of Julfa, the Nakhichevan prison, the Novocherkassk prison, and the Petersburg prison. In March 1912 he was released from prison and moved to Bulgaria.
Participation in the Balkan War
During the 1st Balkan War, Armenians living in Christian countries in the Balkans supported their government in the fight against the Ottoman Empire. Garegin Nzhdeh started the war on September 16, 1912. Andranik and Nzhdeh managed to organize several hundred Armenian volunteers to participate in the war.
On October 20, 1912, Nzhdeh was appointed commander of the Second Armenian Company. In early November, he fights in Uzun-Khamidir.
In November 1912, near the village of Merkhamli (Russian) Bolg. on the banks of the Maritsa River in the White Sea Region, as part of the Third Bulgarian Brigade, Nzhde and his company participated in the defeat of the Turkish corps of General Yaver Pasha, for which Nzhde received Bulgarian (including: Bulgarian cross "For Courage" IV degree) and Greek awards and the title of "Hero of the Balkan peoples".
On July 19, 1913, the Kyiv Thought newspaper publishes an essay by its war correspondent, Lev Trotsky, about an Armenian volunteer company that took part in the first Balkan war against Turkey for the liberation of Macedonia and Thrace:
The company is commanded by an Armenian officer in uniform. He is simply called "Comrade Garegin." Garegin, this is a former student of St. Petersburg University, who was involved in the famous "skiing" trial of the Dashnaktsutyun and acquitted after a three-year prison term. He completed a course at a military school in Sofia and before the war was a second lieutenant in the reserve of the Bulgarian army.
World War I
On the eve of World War I, Nzhdeh received a pardon from the tsarist government and moved to Tiflis in early October 1914. At the first stage of the war, he was deputy commander of the 2nd Armenian volunteer squad as part of the Russian army (the commander of the regiment was Dro), later he commanded a separate Armenian-Yazidi military unit. In addition, Nzhdeh fought as a deputy commander and as part of the Ararat squad and the 1st Armenian regiment.
From May 1915 to July 25, 1916, Nzhdeh participated in the battles for the liberation of Western Armenia, for which he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree, St. Anna of the 4th degree and St. George's crosses of the 3rd and 2nd degrees.
In July 1915 he received the rank of lieutenant.
From May 1917, Nzhdeh was the city commissar in Alexandropol.
First Republic of Armenia
In May 1918, Nzhdeh covered the retreat of the Armenian troops from the Kars region, fighting at Aladzha; At the same time, Garegin Nzhdeh managed to take out materials from the excavations of Professor N. Ya. Marr from Ani.
On May 25-28, 1918, Nzhdeh commanded a detachment in the battle near Karakilisa (Vanadzor), as a result of which the Turks decided not to advance deep into Armenia. In this battle he was again wounded. Awarded the Order of Courage.
In December 1918, Nzhdeh crushed the uprising of the Turks in Vedi. In 1919, Nzhdeh served in the Armenian army and participated in various battles. For the suppression of the uprising in Vedibasar, Nzhdeh was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree.
In August 1919, the Minister of War of Armenia, by order No. 3, assigns Nzhdeh the rank of captain.
Activities in Zangezur
On September 4, 1919, Nzhdeh was sent with his detachment to Zangezur (Syunik region). In October, 33-year-old Nzhdeh was appointed commander of the southeastern front of Zangezur (Syunik), while the defense of the northern region, Sisian, was led by Poghos Ter-Davtyan.
In Nzhdeh's own words - " Then I devoted myself to the cause of the physical protection of the endangered Armenians of Kapan and Arevik, repelling the periodic attacks of Musavat Azerbaijan and Turkish pashas Nuri and Khalil».
In December 1919, Nzhdeh in Geghvadzor suppressed resistance in 32 Azerbaijani villages, which, according to Armenian data, became a disaster for Kafan and the surrounding regions.
The offensive of the Azerbaijani forces was stopped by the Armenian side in early November near Geryusy.
In March 1920, the Armenian-Azerbaijani war resumed throughout the disputed regions (Zangezur, Karabakh, Nakhichevan). On April 28, Baku was occupied by the Red Army, and Soviet power was proclaimed there; in early July, the Red Army entered Zangezur, and fighting began between it and the Armenian forces in the middle of the month.
In the spring of 1920, the Armenian government assigned Garegin Nzhdeh the rank of colonel.
On August 10, 1920, an agreement was signed between Soviet Russia and the Republic of Armenia, according to which the disputed regions were occupied by the Red Army. Fearing that Zangezur might then come under the control of Soviet Azerbaijan, Nzhdeh did not recognize this agreement and refused to leave Zangezur.
In early September, Kapan was occupied by the troops of the Red Army, and Nzhdeh with his detachment was pushed back to the Khustupk mountains (near Meghri, ancient Arevik), where he fortified himself, taking advantage of the inaccessibility of the terrain.
However, in early October 1920, a mass uprising against the Soviet regime began in Zangezur, led by Nzhde and Ter-Davtyan, and after the death of the latter, Nzhde alone). By November 21, two brigades of the 11th Red Army and several Turkish battalions of Zaval Pasha allied to it were defeated by the rebels in the battle near the Tatev Monastery, and on November 22 Nzhdeh entered Goris. The Soviet forces left Zangezur (according to some sources, about 12,000 Red Army soldiers died during these events).
On December 25, 1920, a congress held in the Tatev Monastery proclaimed the "Autonomous Syunik Republic", which was actually headed by Nzhdeh, who took the ancient Armenian title of sparapet (commander in chief). The leadership of Soviet Armenia announced a reward for the head of the "head of the Zangezur counter-revolution" "adventurer Nzhdeh". The February uprising in Armenia pulled back the forces of the Red Army, giving Zangezur a break for a while; in the spring, with the defeat of the February uprising, the rebel forces retreated to Zangezur. By that time, Nzhdeh had extended his power to part of Nagorno-Karabakh, uniting with the rebels operating there.
On April 26, 1921, at the II Tatev Congress, in which 95 delegates from 64 villages took part, the Republic of Lernaayastan (Republic of Mountainous Armenia) was proclaimed, and Nzhdeh headed it as Prime Minister, Minister of War and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
On June 1, at a joint meeting of the “Committee for the Liberation of the Motherland” and the Republic of Mountainous Armenia held in Goris, Mountainous Armenia is renamed Armenia (Republic of Armenia), as a continuation of the First Republic; Simon Vratsyan, the prime minister of the latter, was appointed its prime minister, and Nzhdeh was appointed minister of war. According to Nzhdeh himself, the only mistake in those days was the announcement of Lernaayastan by Armenia, which happened against his will.
In July 1921, after the official publication in the press of the decision of the Revolutionary Committee of Armenia to leave Syunik as part of Armenia and having secured guarantees from the leadership of Soviet Armenia regarding the preservation of Syunik as part of Armenia, Nzhdeh and his associates crossed the Araks River to Persia.
According to the testimony (during interrogation in prison) of Dashnak Hovhannes Devedjian, former Secretary of the Bureau of the Government of Armenia, Nzhdeh, heading military affairs in Zangezur, was used by the Dashnak government of Armenia, first to pacify the local Azerbaijanis, rather to clear the territory of Zangezur from Azerbaijanis, and then to fight against the Red Army.
According to Tom de Waal, having captured Zangezur in 1921, Nzhdeh expelled the remnants of the Azerbaijani population from there and achieved, as the Armenian author Claude Mutafyan euphemistically put it, "rearmenization" of the region.
Emigration
In Persia, Nzhdeh stopped for some time in the village of Muzhambar, and about a month later he moved to Tabriz.
By that time, a slanderous campaign was launched against Garegin Nzhde, the instigators of which were Bolshevik agents and those members of the united government of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Lernaayastan, whom Nzhde publicly condemned more than once.
In July 1921, the Supreme Court of the ARFD initiated a court case against Garegin Nzhdeh. He was charged with "facilitating the fall of the Republic of Lernaayastan". On September 29, the party court ruled: “ Expel Nzhdeh from the Dashnaktsutyun Party and submit his case to the upcoming 10th Party Congress". However, in April-May 1923, the party congress, and then the 10th congress (November 17, 1924-January 17, 1925), reinstates Nzhdeh in the ranks of the party.
From 1922 to 1944, Nzhdeh lived in Sofia (Bulgaria), was a member of the Balkan Committee of the ARF.
Nzhdeh got engaged in the summer of 1913 in Sofia, and in 1935 he married Epima Sukiasyan. In the spring of 1945, his wife and son were exiled to the Bulgarian town of Pavlikeni, where on February 24, 1958, Sukiasyan died of tuberculosis. The son, Sukias-Vrezh Ter-Harutyunyan, after demobilization from the army in 1960, settled in Sofia.
Creation of Tseghakron
In 1933, Nzhdeh participated in the 12th Assembly of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which was attended by almost all famous Armenian figures in exile. Nzhdeh represented the Armenian emigrants of Bulgaria there. They were offered several points for organizing Armenian emigration in order to fight against Turkey and the Bolsheviks. He considered the organization of the Armenian youth to be the main task, for this purpose he went to the USA in the summer of 1933.
Within the framework of the Dashnaktsutyun, Garegin Nzhdeh created a youth organization in the same year, the Tsegakron group, characterized by political scientist Volker Yakobi as proto-fascist, later renamed the Armenian Youth Organization. In the USA, in the places of compact residence of Armenians, he created Oath Unions (Tsegakron Ukhter). Branches of the organization were opened in Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Greece and France. When creating Tsegakron, Nzhdeh was mainly inspired by the racist theories and ideologies that prevailed in the 1930s.
The name "Tsegakron" comes from the words "race" and "religion". Opponents of the Dashnaks consider it "racial worship", with a clear connotation of fascism, supporters translate it as "devoted to the race", "followers of the race". His main idea was to create a connection among North American youth with a clear concept of national identity. The main idea was that the nation should be considered first of all. Nzhdeh promoted "racial patriotism" as "a natural and logical reaction against an alien environment that threatens the very existence of our race." The style and slogans of his movement echoed the fascist movements of Europe. The uniform used two of the three colors of the fallen republic's tricolor, blue shirts, and orange handkerchiefs. According to Nzhdeh: “Rejecting the flag means denying our identity. We cannot be neutral on this issue. For if we remain neutral, what will happen to the identity of Armenians outside the homeland.” According to Thomas de Waal, Nzhdeh had a truly fascist bias when creating this organization.
If to this day our people receive only blows and are tragically unable to fight back, the reason is that they do not live as a clan ... Tseghakronism is a panacea, without which the Armenians will remain the most politically disadvantaged part of humanity.
This Nzhdeh laid the foundation for the theory of "Armenism". The motto of the organization was “Armenia to the Armenians”, and the purpose of its creation was “To educate a family-revering generation, whose representatives would live and act as subjects and warriors of their kind, wherever they are and whatever social position they occupy.”
The émigré newspaper Razmik, which began to be published by Nzhdeh together with Hayk Asatryan in 1937, became the printed organ of Tsegakron.
Nzhdeh opposed Tsegakron to the Dashnaktsutyun party, whose policy, in his opinion, was indecisive. Beginning in the middle of 1935, relations between Tsegakron and Dashnaktsutyun began to worsen. According to the leaders of the Dashnaktsutyun, Tsegakron was the youth wing of the party, which made it possible to disregard its leadership. The aggravation of relations also took place between Nzhdeh and the head of the ARF Bureau Ruben Ter-Minasyan. According to Ter-Minasyan, the organization created by Nzhdeh is dangerous for the Armenians and can lead to a split in the party from within.
According to many researchers, when, according to the Dashnaktsutyun, Nzhdeh's views became extremist, fascist and racist, he was expelled from the party. This happened in 1938 at the 13th Dashnaktsutyun Meeting. Later, attempts were made by the Dashnaktsutyun to return Nzhdeh, as, for example, in 1939, when General Dro tried to convince him to return and subjugate Tsegakron to the Dashnaktsutyun, but Nzhdeh refused, however, declaring his intention to cooperate with the party in order to resolve pan-Armenian problems.
Nzhdeh assisted Hayk Asatryan in the creation at the end of 1937 of the ideology of the emigrant organization "Taronakanutyun" (Taronism), based on the ideas of nationalism, as well as supporting and developing the ideas of the Aryan origin of Armenians. The official printed edition of the organization was the weekly "Taronsky Eagle" ("Taroni Artsiv"). In its ideology, this movement was not much different from Tsegakron. At the beginning of World War II, the formation of paramilitary reconnaissance and sabotage groups began from members of Tsegakron and Taronakanutyun, who had previously undergone military psychological training. Later they were trained in the camps of the Abwehr, under the leadership of Nzhdeh, with the aim of being later transferred to the territory of the Caucasus and Turkey.
World War II period
Returning to Bulgaria, Nzhde established ties with Berlin, whose goal was to convince the Nazis to attack Turkey, and in the early 1940s, he participated in the creation of Armenian paramilitary units as part of the Wehrmacht, trained under the guidance of SS instructors. At the beginning of World War II, Garegin Nzhde began to cooperate with the German authorities, pursuing the goal of preventing a possible invasion of Turkey into Soviet Armenia in the event of the Germans seizing Transcaucasia and, if possible, with the help of Germany, restoring the independence of Armenia.
In 1942, on the initiative of the Nazi military administration, the Armenian National Council was established ( Armenischen National Gremiums) headed by Artashes Abeghyan, professor at the University of Berlin. Abeghyan invites Garegin Nzhdeh to participate in the work of the council. In December 1942, Nzhdeh became one of the seven members of the Armenian National Council (established in Berlin) and deputy editor of the National Council newspaper Azat Hayastan"(Free Armenia") (editor-in-chief - Abram Gyulkhandanyan (Russian) Armenian).
According to CIA documents declassified under the law on the disclosure of Nazi war crimes, on September 1, 1945, the Armenian weekly Armenian Mirror-Spectator published a translation of the original German document, from which it followed that the Armenian National Council, which included Dashnak leaders - Chairman Artashes Abegyan, Deputy Abram Fulkhandanyan, Harutyun Baghdasaryan, David Davidkhanyan, Garegin Nzhdeh, Vagan Papazyan, Dro Kanayan and Dertovmasyan, at one time turned to the Nazi Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories Alfred Rosenberg with a proposal to create a German colony on the territory of Soviet Armenia.
Nzhdeh and General Dro participated in agitation among Soviet Armenian prisoners of war, which aimed to recruit volunteers for the so-called Armenian Legion, whose units were involved in the battles in the North Caucasus, and later on the Western Front.
According to the encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", more than 30 agents of Armenian origin were recruited on the territory of Bulgaria during the Nzhdeh war. He participated in their sabotage training, as well as in the transfer to the rear of the Soviet army in order to conduct subversive activities.
Arrest and imprisonment
When the Soviet troops approached Sofia, Nzhde refused to leave Bulgaria, he himself motivated his act by the fact that he did not want to expose his organization to a blow and also hoped that the USSR would soon declare war on Turkey and Nzhde would be able to take a direct part in this war. After the entry of the Soviet troops, he wrote a letter with this proposal to the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in Bulgaria, General Tolbukhin.
Nzhdeh's collaboration with the Nazis led to his arrest by Soviet military counterintelligence in Bulgaria. Garegin Nzhdeh was identified and arrested by counterintelligence officers as part of the undercover case of the Abwehrgroup-114 (“Dromedar”). The arrest of Nzhdeh was preceded by the detention by the Bulgarian police, the basis for which was the accusation of having links with German intelligence. SMERSH officers also detained 17 out of 30 saboteurs trained by him, preventing the commission of sabotage and terrorist acts. The rest were put on the wanted list.
On October 12, he was arrested by SMERSH and sent to Moscow, to the internal prison of the MGB on Lubyanka, from where in 1946 he was transferred to the Yerevan prison. Nzhdeh was accused of counter-revolutionary activities, primarily of participating in the "anti-Soviet" uprising in Zangezur and the massacres of communists during this uprising (this accusation angered him extremely, since back in 1921 an amnesty was announced to the Zangezur rebels). He was tortured by insomnia, but not by physical force. The main point of the accusation was the “execution in Tatev”, which had already become an important part of the Soviet anti-Dashnak propaganda - it was alleged that after the occupation of Goris, Nzhdeh shot, and partly threw alive from the Tatev rock up to 400 captured communists and Red Army soldiers. Nzhdeh himself denied accusations of killing communists, arguing that captured Turks from the Zaval Pasha detachment, dressed in Red Army uniforms, were shot, without his knowledge, at the initiative of the local population.
April 24, 1948 sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was sent to the Vladimir prison.
In March 1952, Garegin Nzhdeh was brought to Yerevan for the second time. In the summer of 1953, before Nzhdeh was transferred to the Vladimir prison, by order of the Minister of State Security of the Armenian SSR, Garegin Nzhdeh was taken by car to show Yerevan, erected buildings, various sights.
At different periods, Nzhdeh was imprisoned in Moscow prisons: Butyrka, Lefortovo, Krasnaya Presnya; when transferred from Yerevan to the Vladimir prison, he remained in the prisons of Baku, Saratov, Kuibyshev, Rostov for a short time, until Nzhde's death he was kept for a year in a prison and hospital in Tashkent (summer 1953 - September 1955).
From a variety of diseases (tuberculosis, hypertension, and so on) in 1954, Garegin Nzhde's health deteriorated to such an extent that the leadership of the prison hospital decided to release him early from prison, but Nzhde was not released.
In September 1955, he was again sent to the Vladimir prison, where he died on December 21 of the same year.
Grave of Nzhdeh
His brother, Levon Ter-Harutyunyan, was refused to bury Nzhdeh in Armenia, and only clothes and watches were given out of his personal belongings. Nzhdeh was buried by his brother, and a sign was placed on the fenced grave: Ter-Harutyunyan Garegin Yegisheevich (1886-1955). In August 1983, the ashes of Garegin Nzhdeh were transported to Armenia by the husband of Nzhdeh's granddaughter: Pavel Ananyan (at the suggestion of Gurgen Armaganyan).
On May 8, 1987, through the efforts of Rafael Hambardzumyan, the ashes were secretly buried in Vayk in the courtyard of the ancient church of Spitakavor (before that, the ashes were kept by different people).
On October 7, 1983, part of the remains (the first cervical vertebra) with the help of Andranik Karapetyan from Goris was buried on the slope of Mount Khustup in Zangezur.
In April 2005, two parts of the relics of Garegin Nzhdeh buried in Spitakavor (right hand and two bones) were taken and buried on April 26 at the memorial-monument built in Kafan (with the knowledge of the government of the Republic of Armenia).
Nzhdeh's Ideas in Modern Armenia
In the post-Soviet period in Armenia, Nzhdeh is considered a national hero, his racist views are downplayed, and nationalism is approved. The ideology of Tsegakron created by him is adhered to by extreme nationalists.
Political parties and public organizations
Beginning in the 1990s, a number of parties were created under the influence of Nzhdeh's ideas.
In July 1991, the Admirers of the Family of Armenia party was established. The charter of the party is called "Tsegakron". Party members follow the ideas of Nzhdeh and are saturated, according to the Russian ethnologist Viktor Shnirelman, with "zoological anti-Semitism." The goal of the party is to create a national religion based on pagan beliefs. The militants of this party took part in the Karabakh war. In June 1991, the "Party of Tseghakron Nzhdeh" was registered, which adheres to a similar ideology with the "Fans of the Family of Armenia" party, but there is no anti-Semitism here.
The Republican Party of Armenia supports the ideology of Tsegakron in its platform. It was created by Ashot Navasardyan, who was a neo-pagan. Later, the neo-pagan nationalism of the party, which gave a significant place to the ideas and images of Nzhdeh, gave way to fundamental nationalism, where the Armenian Apostolic Church again topped the list of national values. However, Nzhdeh continues to exist as a canonical hero. In 2000, the leader of the party, Andranik Margaryan, an extreme nationalist with "NJ" views, was approved for the post of Prime Minister of Armenia, whose appointment personifies the nationalist sentiments in the country. In order to better inform the youth about such concepts as “military-patriotic and healthy lifestyle”, the party created its own youth organization “Tsegakron”, which since 2004 has been cooperating with the Armenian Apostolic Church in the “fight” against religious minorities.
Nzhdeh and Armenian neo-paganism
The roots of Armenian neo-paganism are associated with Garegin Nzhdeh, who begins to propagate it in the 1930s. In modern Armenia, neo-paganism began to spread from the end of 1989, when a number of intellectuals proposed a return to the Armenian pre-Christian faith.
Nzhdeh is a cult symbol among Armenian neo-pagans, around which neo-mythological texts and legends are formed. Pilgrimages are organized to the places of his ritual burials. His ashes, brought to Armenia, are buried in three places - in the Vayots Dzor region in the monastery of Spitakavor, partly in the city of Kapan, where a memorial was built and part of the relics is located on Mount Khustup. Around mid-July - early August, starting in 2008, neo-pagans organize a pilgrimage to Mount Khustup to spend the night there. According to the priests, the pilgrims hope that they will be visited by a vision of the deity Vahagn, as it visited Nzhdeh. On the second of the graves of Nzhdeh, the ceremony is performed twice. Priests claim that Nzhdeh was a prophet. His well-known photograph in military uniform is placed on neo-pagan posters and calendars in the context of the pantheon of pagan deities.
Memory
Commemorative coin of Armenia 2001 "Garegin Nzhdeh" - 100 dram - silver 925 with gilding
In modern Armenia, there is a large-scale cult of Nzhdeh. Nzhdeh's writings have been repeatedly republished in Armenia, which is also facilitated by the nationalist ideology of the ruling Republican Party. In memory of him, commemorative coins are minted, documentaries and feature films are shot. A square in Yerevan is named after Garegin Nzhdeh. One of the awards of the Armenian Armed Forces is the Garegin Nzhdeh medal.
In 2012, a memorial plaque to Garegin Nzhdeh was installed on the territory of the Armenian Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Armavir. Vladimir Pavlyuchenkov, advisor to the head of the Armavir city administration, spoke at the opening ceremony. Some residents of the city appealed to the authorities with a request to remove the sign.
On January 28, 2013, the premiere of the film Garegin Nzhdeh (directed by Hrach Keshinyan) was held at the Moscow cinema in Yerevan. The film was dedicated to the 21st anniversary of the creation of the Armenian army. Filming took place in Armenia and Europe. The film starred Russian actors Chulpan Khamatova and Mikhail Efremov.
In 2016, a bronze monument (5.7 m high) was unveiled in Yerevan to Garegin Nzhdeh, Nzhdeh’s statements were engraved on the ramp at the foot of the monument. The ceremony was attended by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.
In connection with the opening of the monument, a reaction followed from Russia, which was voiced by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova - “Our attitude to any form of revival, the glorification of any manifestations of Nazism, neo-Nazism, extremism, is also well known to everyone ... It is not clear to us why the indicated monument was erected, because we all know about the feat of the Armenian people, this is the immortal feat of the Armenian people during the Great Patriotic War war, World War II. This was followed by a response from official representatives of the Armenian government, who condemned the words voiced by Zakharova. Vice Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov noted that Garegin Nzhdeh fought for the freedom of Armenia all his life, noting that "The monument to Garegin Nzhdeh in Yerevan was erected because Nzhdeh is a national hero of the Armenian people, just like Alexander Nevsky, Marshal Kutuzov, Bagration are national heroes of the fraternal Russian people.". Soon, Maria Zakharova commented on the earlier voiced words, stating that her comments were distorted, while adding that the installation of the monument to Nzhdeh was an internal affair of Armenia.
Some works of Garegin Nzhdeh
- "The struggle of sons against fathers" (Thessaloniki, 1927)
- "Seven commandments to my companions"
- "Autobiography" (1944)
- "Ethnover"
- "A people professing courage-Aryanism"
- "My credo"
- "Open letters of the Armenian intelligentsia"
- "Covenant and Creed of Ethnovery" (1933)
- "Creator of our revolution" (article)
World War I
With the outbreak of the First World War () and the announcement of an amnesty for the Dashnaks by Russia, he appeared at the Russian embassy in Sofia with an offer of his services. He was appointed deputy commander of the II Volunteer Detachment (Armenian formations as part of the Russian army - the detachment commander was Dro). In early May 1915 he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree and St. Anna of the 4th degree for the battles in the Berkley Gorge and at Sheikh-Kara. In July 1915 he was awarded the St. George Crosses 3 and 2 degrees for battles in the Magreod Gorge. Since May 1917 he was the city commissioner in Alexandropol (Gyumri)
First Republic
Subsequently, in a letter to Stalin, he explained his cooperation with the Nazis with two motives - anti-Turkish and the desire to save the Armenians from the fate of the Jews (the Germans began to take discriminatory measures against the Armenians in the Balkans).
Arrest and imprisonment
