Danko: People from Central Slovakia Particularly Close to Armenians
Danko: People from Central Slovakia Particularly Close to Armenians Banska Bystrica, January 29 (TASR) – People from central Slovakia with their values and feelings are particularly close to Armenians, said Slovak Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS), who on Monday took his Armenian counterpart Ara Babloyan to the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) memorial in Banska Bystrica to pay tribute to the victims of WWII.Danko said that he looks forward to visits to Poprad (Presov region), Kosice and Zilina, but he feels that central Slovakia was the best choice on this occasion, partly from the perspective of Christianity. He added that there's a need to take international politics to the regions.Danko took Babloyan to see the baroque Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral in the centre of Banska Bystrica and an Lutheran wooden church built without nails in Hronsek that is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.Babloyan, who has held the post of Armenian National Assembly president for only six months, praised what he views as intense and fruitful cooperation even within such a short timespan.According to SNP Museum general director Stanislav Micev, despite the lack of detailed information on the individual nationalities of the 3,000 Soviets who took part in the Slovak uprising, it's certain that they included Armenians, as is commemorated on a memorial stone featuring 35 nationalities."There are certainly a few hundred [SNP combatants from Armenia] buried at a cemetery in Zvolen (Banska Bystrica region) and at Slavin cemetery [in Bratislava]," said Micev, adding that Armenians formed part of partisan groups and also fought in the ranks of the Red Army in Slovakia at the end of WWII.