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March 29
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YEREVAN. - Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan and Mrs. Rita Sargsyan attended today a “Songs of Military Years” concert held at the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after A. Spendiaryan within the framework of the International Music Festival “Yerevan Prospects.” The concert was dedicated to the glorious victories of the Great Patriotic War and Karabakh heroic battles.

World-famous opera singer Dmitri Hvorostovsky and director Constantine Orbelian, Russia’s Interior Ministry Academic Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Russian Army and State Youth Orchestra of Armenia took part in the concert.

The event was attended by war veterans and guests. During the concert, Serzh Sargsyan made a speech, in which he once again congratulated the attendees’ Victory Day. He also said that the World War II was one of the cruelest events in the human history, which took the lives of roughly 50 million people, the Soviet Union sacrificing over 20 million lives.   

For Armenia’s President, the Victory Day is first and foremost a day of honoring the veterans, who won in a really tough struggle and deserve the greatest gratitude.

“Two decades after the Great Genocide, the Armenians living in the Soviet Union fought the adversary with half a million soldiers and military officers. They were helped by our Diaspora brothers, 100 thousand of which were fighting in the allies’ armies during the World War II.  Brave Armenians of Armenia and Karabakh demonstrated glorious examples of heroism and selflessness, Sargsyan said.

No wonder, Sarsyan said, the Armenians were distinguished for their high effectiveness among those holding the highest military ranks and those awarded for feats, as well as the Soviet Union heroes, the President said.

Sargsyan said that Armenians were indeed fully engaged in the Great Patriotic War and it’s a pity that after 70 years certain officials try to express public ideas, full of empty speculations, regarding Armenians’ struggle against Nazism and their devotion to that objective. “Everyone knows how Armenians devote themselves to a proper idea, and history has come to prove this not once. Secondly, I’m not going to enter the level of such speculations; nor am I going to present powerful facts against such statements. Such a step would disregard the greatness of the joint historic victory.”

According to Sargsyan, all the USSR people won in the Great Patriotic War and it was a glorious victory. “Yes, we, Armenians, know what historic memory is. Memory is not to hold a grudge and vindictiveness. Memory means a lesson. Anti-human ideology, misanthropic and hate propaganda, as well as martial rhetoric result in war and mass annihilation of innocent people. This is the lesson we have no right to forget,” Sargsyan said.

The President added that for Armenians May 9 also stands for the protection of their homeland, namely Karabakh’s Shoushi city liberation, which was not only a military necessity but the only precondition for living. “It was in Shoushi where the new Armenian generation proved it was the genuine and worthy successor of its courageous ancestors,” he said. 

Serzh Sargsyan concluded that May 9 is a psychological, military and moral victory day for the Armenians. “Currently, the genuine guarantor of our victories and the protector of our peace is our never-sleeping Armenian Army and the soldiers standing on the border,” he said.  

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