22:46, 22 November 2006

Armenia tries to understand why Armenians are assassinated in Russia

"There are two reasons for killing Armenians in Russia. Firstly, the Russian society is sick with xenophobia, secondly, there is an order to kill Armenians in Russia," thinks Levon Ananyan, Chairman of Armenian Writers' Guild. In his opinion, Russia is completely controlling its army of skinheads.

Ms. Granush Kharatyan, Head of Department on National Minorities and Religion Matters at the Government of Armenia, is confident that the events in Russia are the actions directed against Armenians. According to her, the Russian authorities are perfectly realizing what is going on. As to the reasons for more frequent murders of Armenians in Russia, Rafael Kazaryan, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" that the spirits of Caucasus-phobia are generally strong in Russia. In his words, any violence is in fact a demonstration not of some particular attitude towards a certain nationality, in this case, of hatred towards this or that nation, but a demonstration of such phenomenon as racism.