After decades of silence, Anastas Mikoyan’s name is resounded and the reason is giving a new breath to the “Great Communist” of the 21st century, in the form of a statue. The City Hall does not see any objection, but many of the Yerevan residents are against the decision. Is Mikoyan missing in the life of Yerevan and Yerevan-residents? The dissident of Soviet year and former political prisoner Azat Arshakyan agrees with the view that personified characters are needed to educate the Armenian nation. The initiators have decided to educate future generations with similarity and example of Anastas Mikoyan. But was Anastas Mikoyan the best choice for this role? Mr. Arshakyan shared his views about Mikoyan, “The statue to Mikoyan could be erected some twenty years ago, and at that time such a step would have been more justified. Why did they decide to deal with it now? I think the initiators are executing a political order. To assess Mikoyan, we need to remember his entire biography. He had constantly changed his opinion. He was able to leave his allies at the right moment. Should he be a man of principle, and the political figure should be a man of principle, he was to be deceased with someone. Aghasi Khanjyan, Miasnikyan perished … there were many deceased. But he survived. A deceitful, murderer, and villain cannot be an examples for us, and Mikolyan’s entire activities are filled with atrocities and betrayal. He had betrayed 26 commissars, the intelligentsia adopting the Russian bolshevism, the revolutionary Bolsheviks, even Stalin and Khrushchev. Anastas Mikoyan is a symbol of treason. If Mikoyan is our hero, it means that we are undeserved people. Then we are cunning and sly people, just like Mikoyan was timely. The customers are saying that they do not trust us, we are trustless people because we are mikoyans. The collective image of the Armenian, in fact, is Mikoyan. But it’s actually not the case, and, in general, we are not alone, we cannot be torn to pieces. In 1930’s he was the initiator of two important events. The first was, the so-called, “food organization”. People were starving, and Mikoyan was storing the food in the storages and exporting. The second important event was that he was selling cultural and museum values of Russia by auction. In addition, Mikoyan, together with Yezhov, was the Co-chair of Compulsory Commission in 1937. In other words, it is possible that he really had not executed anyone, but he had taken part in this whole slaughter. If Anastas Mikoyan had not killed Baghramyan’s comrades-in-arms, we would have so many Marshals!…There are voluminous documents in Russia that need to be read to understand what representative of regime Mikoyan actually is. Read and then decide whether the uniform of this villain is suitable for us. A very ugly thing is going on.”
Syune SEVADA
