Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hikmet Hajiyev has commented on statements of the Armenian parliament’s vice-speaker and a foreign ministry official that Nzhdeh Garegin is a national hero of Armenia.

In a statement, Hajiyev said glorification as national heroes of fascist general Nzhdeh Garegin and Drastamat Kanayan (aka “Dro”), and ASALA terrorist Monte Melkonyan, reveals the true colors of the Armenian regime.

“The massacres of civilians in Azerbaija’s Zangazur at the hands of Nzhdeh Garegin and Drastamat Kanayan in 1918-1920 were imitiated by the German-fascist army in occupied USSR territories against Jews and other nations during the World War II. The racist Armenian nationalist ideology developed by Nzhdeh Garegin on the basis of the fascist ideologies of racial discrimination, “Aryan race” and anti-Semitism is the ideological tendency of Armenia’s ruling Republic party and consequently the Armenian government today. What is even worse is that this ideology, known as Nzhdehizm, is included in the curriculum of Armenian secondary and higher schools, and the younger generation are being brought up in these spirits.

Armenia’s exaltation of fascism, including the unveiling of a big monument to Nzhdeh Garegin with the participation of the country’s leadership in downtown Yerevan in 28 May 2016, was an extreme manifestation of disrespect for the millions of people killed during the World War as well as their families and veterans.

Based on the UN General Assembly’s 17 Dec.2015 resolution A/RES/70/139 titled “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” and other documents, the international community should give proper assessment to these acts of Armenia,” he said.