CONSTRUCTED ARMENIAN CHURCH AND ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN FRIENDSHIP MONUMENT
DEFACED IN BUDYONOVSK, RUSSIA

KRASNODAR, JULY 18. ARMINFO. Vandals set on fire the constructed
Armenian church and defaced the Armenian-Russian Friendship monument
in the Russian town of Budyonovsk, reports Erkramas.

The monument to the Fathers – Founders of the Holy Cross Town was
inaugurated Oct 17 2004.

The first attack was made in Feb 2005: the plaque “1799-2004” and the
“Holy Cross” inscription were torn off from the monument. Recently
the vandals came again breaking the lamps, damaging the cross stone
and leaving a dead cat under the arch. July 16 the vandals set on
fire the fence round the church. The fire was quickly put out.

This all may be done to aggravate ethnic relations in Budyonovsk as
the monument is regarded in the town as token of Armenian-Russian
friendship. “So we are indignant at the inaction of the local police
for who it seems to be easier to find and deport labor emigrants
from Armenia than to catch real criminals,” says the chief editor of
Yerkramas Tigran Tavadyan.

Budyonovsk (Subr Khach (Holy Cross)) was founded in 1799 by Armenians
from Karabakh who were given a charter by Russian Emperor Paul I.-0