NATO and Peter the Great neglect exhibition on "Armenian genocide" in St. Petersburg
Review by Caliber.Az

ANALYTICS  21 April 2022 - 15:52

Every street brawler knows that it is guaranteed to knock out the opponent's breath and make him unable to move for some time, after a punch to the gut or solar plexus, especially with a mighty force. And it is no wonder because the solar plexus is the place where the nerve "wires" of the body are connected. However, the phrase "a punch to the gut" has an allegorical meaning - "to humiliate". This is the fate of the Armenian Diaspora of St. Petersburg, including the entire Spurk (diaspora in Armenian), even more so the entire Armenian people. It is doubly humiliating that the blow was delivered not by just anyone, but by the centuries-old patron of the Armenian people, Russia.

It is no secret that since the second half of the 20th century, April had been a sacred month for the Armenians of the world. It was then that Armenians began to use this month to promote the myth of the "genocide" in the Ottoman Empire in April 1915. Huge sums of money were spent each year on this myth, on the organization of exhibitions and conferences, which, we are sure, could be better used in impoverished Armenia. But logic prevailed: poverty is nothing, promotion of a myth is everything.

And this April, the Armenian Diaspora was planning to hold large-scale events all over Russia on the occasion of the next "genocide" anniversary. Palmyra of the North (the poetic name of St. Petersburg) was no exception. Thus, the Armenian media outlets actively promoted the exhibition "No to Genocide" that was to be held from April 22 to May 8 in the historical park "Russia - My History" in St. Petersburg.

"Residents of the northern capital will be able to get acquainted with historical events recognized as a crime against humanity, to realize the value of human life, to honour the memory of millions of victims.

Modern audiovisual technologies, the use of infographics, animation and touch-screen tables will help to get an impressive amount of unique information in a short time.

Guided tours, thematic screenings, and audio guides for the visitors to get acquainted with the exhibition on their own will be organized within the framework of the project. The exhibition was initiated by St. Petersburg Armenian Youth Association "ARMA", the Don Union of Armenian Youth, and "Russia - My History" Museum and Exhibition Center, the announcement said.

Literally one day before the opening of the exhibition, the Armenian diaspora of St. Petersburg received a painful "punch to the gut", which we talked about at the beginning of the article. And it's been several hours that the Armenian segment of social networks is literally seething with indignation. Armenian bloggers express their opinions about Russia either without mincing words. One of the organizers of the exhibition, ARMA, made a lengthy statement, explaining that "the exhibition was cancelled due to reasons beyond the control of the organizers."

"Since January 2022 we have been actively working on the project which is very important for the Armenian community of St. Petersburg and residents of the city - multimedia exhibition "No to Genocide". We worked on organizing this exhibition daily, we spent a lot of effort and resources, we developed the whole program for the opening ceremony with special guests and mass media, we prepared excursions and films, and we made an agreement on free entrance for everyone so that everyone would have an opportunity to visit the exhibition. This project was really very important for us. However, something happened that we did not expect - the fully coordinated exhibition for reasons beyond our control was cancelled at the very last moment," the organization says.

ARMA doesn't report the reasons for the cancellation of the exhibition, glorifying the Armenian myth about the "genocide". But it is very offensive to Armenians. We should not look for the notorious hand of Baku or Ankara here. Everything is much more straightforward. Caliber.Az was informed by the Committee on Culture of St Petersburg, which runs the city historical park "Russia - My History", that the exhibition "No to Genocide!" was cancelled due to the fact that instead of it an exhibition devoted to NATO is planned.

"The fact is that we have a lot of exhibitions planned, and so we, taking into account the available space, looked already at the priorities. We have the Historical Parks Association, there are 24 of them around the country. The head of the Association, Ivan Yesin, received an urgent recommendation to hold an exhibition devoted to NATO crimes in connection with the events taking place in the world. It will kick off throughout Russia on April 27. And that is why the exhibition "No to Genocide" overlapped. It is necessary to understand that the corresponding multimedia content will be uploaded for the exhibition about NATO for five days. That is why, unfortunately, there was no way we could hold both the NATO exhibition and the "No to Genocide" exhibition at the same time. We postponed the latter. For how long? We do not know yet, because in May we are going to celebrate City Day and the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great, and these exhibitions have already been announced. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the exhibition about Armenia at the very last minute," the committee told us.

This is how the exhibition on one of the most impudent myths of the 20th and 21st centuries, popularized by the Armenian Diaspora, became a willing victim of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the confrontation between Russia and the West in the face of NATO.

Caliber.Az