The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC), Russia
Dec 27 2004
Jewish Leaders and Armenian Minister Meet on Question of
Anti-Semitism
Monday, December 27, 2004
YEREVAN, Armenia – Chief Rabbi of Armenia Gersh Meir Burshtein and
other Jewish leaders in Yerevan met with Armenian Foreign Affairs
Minister Vardan Oskanyan this week. While the Minister expressed his
wish to create appropriate conditions for regular cooperation with
the Jewish community, emphasizing his intentions to provide his
support to the Jewish community in Armenia, the main focus of the
discussion concerned anti-Semitic statements made by a number of top
officials in Armenia.
“These statement haven’t received the support of the Armenian people,
but nevertheless I consider it necessary to discuss the situation at
the governmental level,” expressed Vardan Oskanyan. These offences
included a statement comparing the Jewish community to a number of
sects known for spreading anti-Jewish propaganda, a comment made by
Granush Haratyan, the Head of the Department on National Minorities
and Religion. These and other anti-Semitic statements, one of which
suggested exiling Jews from Armenia, have been published in the
country’s leading commercial and even state-sponsored newspapers.
“We want to live and work in Armenia, but these false statements
printed in the mass media may result in negative attitudes towards
Jews by Armenians. I am counting on a positive and resolute response
from the Armenian Government regarding these anti-Semitic
statements,” affirmed the Chief Rabbi of Armenia. Such offenses to
the Jewish Diaspora in Armenia have also been aired on one of the
national television channels ‘ALM’.
“I have always been proud to say that there is no anti-Semitism in
Armenia,” stated Rimma Varjapetyan, the Chairman of the Jewish
Community in Armenia. “However, we have been receiving a number of
threatening calls as of recent, just as soon as the President of the
ALM Channel, Tigran Karapetyan, joined Mrs. Haratyan in Jew-bashing.
These anti-Semitic attitudes are unacceptable,” she declared
solemnly. Such concerns were echoed by the meeting’s other
participants, who are also afraid for the resultant security risks to
the Jewish institutions they head.
The Minister promised to take measures to resolve the situation. “I
understand your anxiety. There is actually no state anti-Semitism in
Armenia, although some individuals propagandize it and may consider
themselves to be anti-Semitists in order to be different”. The
Minister expressed his desire to meet with Granush Haratyan to
discuss her actions and to submit a report about this meeting and
issue to the President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian.
At the end of the meeting, the Jewish leaders presented the Minister
with a number of gifts as a symbol of friendship with the Jewish
community. In addition to a music album by composer Willy Vainer, the
Director of the ‘Menorah’ Jewish Cultural Center, who also attended
the meeting, the Minister received a calendar for the upcoming year,
the latest issues of the ‘Lechaim’ Magazine and the ‘Kohelet’ and
‘Magen David’ newspapers.