Armenians demand dismantling of Russian poet Pushkin monument

The Leader of the Armenian European Party’s fraction, Tigran Khzmalyan, together with a group of citizens have demanded the dismantling of a monument dedicated to the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin.

As Caliber.Az reports citing Armenian media outlets, the group has gathered at the English park in Yerevan in front of the monument. Khzmalyan has demanded the dismantling of all Russian monuments in Armenia just a few days ago.

Gevorg Engibaryan, a member of the Christian-Democratic Party,  who also attended the gathering called it a “humiliation” to have a school and street located in the center of Yerevan named after Pushkin, who wrote the "Tazit" poem in which he insulted the Armenian people.

The parliamentarian is referring to a line from Aleksandr Pushkin’s poem reading “You are a coward, you are a slave, you are Armenian!”

Engibaryan further went on to express his frustration, saying “We have a street in the center of Yerevan named after [Russian military commander and Bolshevik Timur] Frunze, the one who taught Turkish soldiers how to kill Armenians. They have no ideological, or cultural connection with us, even their worldview has nothing to do with us, it is an evil empire. We must get rid of them. We still have Leningrad Street, there is no such city [anymore] yet in Yerevan there is such a street. For example, we have no street named after Leonid Azgaldian, no street named after our heroes, but there is a street named after Lenin. These people stood at the origin of the destruction of our state”.