Moses Bekker: "Antisemitism and xenophobia in Armenia is not a myth but a frustrating reality, like idea of racial supremacy of "Aryan" Armenians over the representatives of Turkic, Jewish and other communities"

The due statement was made by Moses Bekker, senior scientific worker of the Institute of Human Rights under the Azerbaijan National Academy of Science.

He reminded the atrocities committed against Hungarian Jews by ethnic Armenian Ferents Salashi (Salasyan) in period of fascist Germany.

"In the 1920s different extremists and nationalists, propagandizing racist ideas from all over Europe, sought refuge in Hungary. Representatives of various ethnic groups, including a small Armenian community, lived in that country at that period. Most of Armenians accepted the idea of supremacy of Aryan race, as they considered themselves to be its direct ancestors.

Among the representatives of the aforementioned community there was First World War veteran, former officer of Austrian-Hungarian army, native Armenian Ferentiz Salashi (Salasyan). In 1930 Salashi joined a secret racist organization "Hungarian league of life", in which he became the main ideologist. In 1937 he founded and led a pro-fascist party of Crossed Arrors, whose symbols resembled the swastika, prohibited in Hungary.

He said the party was later banned by the Hungarian government as not meeting its interest and its leader was arrested and send to prison. But later he was released under pressure of Berlin and send to Germany.

According to Bekker, after the occupation of Hungary, the leader of the party became of demand as he propagandized ideas of anti-Turkism and zoological antisemitism.

At the same time, Bekker noted that at that period the most interesting were the actions of the Turkish government which assisted Jewish refugees in their attempt to reach Palestine via Turkey in the 1930s.

"When the pro-fascist group of Atylkhan attempted to launch anti-Semitic propaganda financed by Germany, Prime Minister of Turkey J.Bayar considered it expedient to announce that "there is no Jewish problem in Turkey and no place for alien movements", that is antisemitism.

He said Armenia needs actualization of the Aryan myth to legitimate the territorial occupation of borderline regions of Azerbaijan, inhabited by "alien turks".

"When getting acquainted with this nonsense, it comes to my mind that the world has returned to the grim past of the early 1930s and 1940s, when the potential of the whole country, fascist Germany, was used for "scientific" searches, aiming to find the home of Aryans.

The Armenian Nazis will probably be happy with the recognition of Armenians as Aryans by the author of the book "The Myth of the 20th century, Nazi criminal and the so-called Minister of "eastern territories" of Germany Alfred Rozenberg, who recognized the "Aryan origin of Armenians"

If we take the thesis of nationalism and antisemitism, flourishing in present-day Armenia, it is likely to be the truth! Armenia was successful in gaining sad popularity by publication and dissemination of anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish literature".

He compared the life of the Jewish community in Armenia with their life in Azerbaijan and Georgia saying that the restoration of Jewish communities, their cultural and religious life is observed in the last two countries.

"Thus, a large Jewish scientific complex is built and new synagogues are opened in Azerbaijan. Moreover, most citizens of the Jewish origins, who left the country long ago, again return to Azerbaijan, which provides equal rights to all people, residing in its territory" Bekker said.

/Day.Az/