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Vahan Hovanisian: Our People Have Suffered The Most From Stalin Repr

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  • Vahan Hovanisian: Our People Have Suffered The Most From Stalin Repr

    VAHAN HOVANISIAN: OUR PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED THE MOST FROM STALIN REPRESSION

    Yerkir.am
    June 16, 2006

    National Assembly has recently named June 14th the Day of Commemoration
    of the Repressed. The initiative came from the Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation.

    Dozens gathered on Wednesday at a memorial erected in Yerevan to
    mark the day for the first time. The event was organized by an NGO
    called Hushamatian and was attended by National Assembly's ARF faction
    members, National Self-determination Union leader Paruyr Hairkian,
    people who were victimized by the Stalin regime.

    Addressing the gathering, ARF Bureau member and National Assembly
    Vice-speaker Vahan Hovanisian said that our entire people have suffered
    the most from the repression.

    He recalled that the Stalin repressions - followed by those applied
    by Lenin - were carried out in waves: first it was the ARF members
    who were sent to jails and executed, then those who were called
    Trotskyites, then others. And this had been going on until the collapse
    of the Soviet Union.

    "Unfortunately, the dreadful practice didn't stop after the Soviet rule
    was over, Hovannisian went on saying. "Under the Armenian National
    Movement too there were political prisoners. There is none now,
    and I am sure there will be none in the future."

    June 14th was chosen to mark that day because it was on June 14,
    1949 that mass arrests were made in Armenia without any political
    motivation taken into account.

    "The goal of the project was to deport Armenians to Altay," Hovannisian
    said. "And this when thousands of Armenians returned to their homeland
    hoping the Soviet Union would become a normal country after the
    WWII. Most of them were deported to Altay."

    "The only guarantee that such things would not repeat in the future
    is a strong and independent Armenia," Hovannisian concluded.
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