It would be interesting to imagine what Bagramyan would say about it now – Bogdan Bezpalko on Artsrun Hovhannisyan’s statements

Russian political scientist Bogdan Bezpalko commented to Alpha News on the scandalous statements made by Artsrun Hovhannisyan, head of the Command and Staff Institute at the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Academy, regarding the Great Patriotic War during an interview with Public Television of Armenia.

“In fact, Turkey was indeed preparing about 29 divisions for an invasion of the Soviet Caucasus, and in this case, it closely followed the events on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. At the time of a possible invasion, the Turkish leadership decided against entering a conflict with the Soviet Union, and this decision turned out to be correct. Therefore, in this situation, I do not consider it a myth to assert that the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the key factors that deterred Turkey from invading Soviet territory. I will also remind you that at that time, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was part of the Soviet Union and did not have full international subjectivity. Therefore, making a decision on foreign policy or talking about Armenia as an independent political player in that period of history is wrong and incorrect,” Bezpalko said.

According to the expert, Armenia makes such statements because it does not want to be grateful.

“Armenia does not want to be grateful, frankly, to present-day Russia, which is the successor state of the Soviet Union and the inheritor of that historical victory. The main contribution to the victory was made by the Russian people and, by the way, people like Ivan Bagramyan, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, who took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and many other battles. By the way, he once expressed himself very harshly on this matter. It would be interesting to imagine what he would say about it now. He is a hero of the Battle of Stalingrad, a man who paid for all this with his blood—how would he perceive the statements made by these Armenian officials today? The whole attempt to revise history is typically driven by the desire either to absolve oneself of guilt or to avoid expressing gratitude. I believe the Armenian leadership really wants to declare its subjectivity, independence and at the same time to downplay the significance of the victory in both the Great Patriotic War and World War II,” Bezpalko concluded.