Russian ambassador calls senior Armenian military officer’s statements 'false and blasphemous'

YEREVAN, May 16. /ARКА/. In an open letter to the Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan, Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin referred to a statement made by Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the head of the Command and Staff Institute of the Military Academy of the Armenian Defense Ministry and former press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry, in a recent interview with the Public Television of Armenia.

In the interview, Hovhannisyan described the arguments that the Battle of Stalingrad saved Armenia from a possible Turkish invasion 'a myth.

"Against the background of deep respect for the Victory Day, the Armenian people were widely outraged by the historically false and blasphemous statements of the former official representative of the Ministry of Defense justifyig the aggression of Nazi Germany," the ambassador's letter says.

Kopyrkin emphasized that it is especially painful to hear such words from the lips of a person who currently heads the Command and Staff Institute of the Military Academy of Armenia.

"It is difficult to assess such an act as anything other than an attempt to desecrate the memory of our heroic ancestors who did not allow the implementation of Hitler's plans to enslave and destroy the peoples of the USSR, and also saved humanity from the "brown plague," the diplomat noted. -0-