ARMENIAN UNION LEADER URGES JOINT RESPONSE TO ETHNIC HATRED
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
April 24, 2006 Monday 11:35 AM MSK
All public organizations and the government should unite to rebuff
the mounting Neo-Nazi threat in Russia, Union of Russian Armenians
leader Ara Abramian told Interfax on Monday.
“The recent cruel murders in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian
cities show that, unfortunately, Nazis, fascists and skinheads of
various kinds are better organized and united than governmental and
law enforcement agencies,” he said.
“It is not just that my compatriot, a young man, has been killed.
The thing is that we do not feel protected in this country. A man gets
killed in the center of Moscow in broad daylight merely because of
his nationality and skin color. Yet somebody still call such crimes
hooliganism,” he said.
The increase in hate crimes shows that society is sick, Abramian said.
“If fascists and Nazis are not stopped, Russia will fall apart,”
he said.
“By coincidence, the crime coincided with the 91st anniversary of the
Armenian genocide, which is being marked in many countries,” he said.