A monument to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust was defaced in Yerevan on the October 19th. A swastika and a call to destroy Jews were painted on the memorial with a stencil. This memorial, erected through the initiative of the Armenian Jewish community in 2006. is the only joint memorial for the victims of the two tragedies in the world.

As stressed in the statement signed by the Chairman of the Armenian Jewish community, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress General Council member Rimma Varjapetyan and the Head Rabbi of Armenia Gersh-Meir Burshtein, “Despite the fact that Armenia does not have any officially registered neo-Nazi organizations, the use of the swastika and the appearance of calls to destroy Jews can mean only one thing: that certain persons are interested in building up anti-Jewish sentiments in Armenia, in anti-Semitic incidents, and in a destabilization of international relations. From our side, we see in this action not only a threat to Jews who live in Armenia, but also an insult to the Armenian people.”

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is disturbed by this event, and expresses hope that the government of Armenia, where Jews have lived peacefully over many hundreds of years, will do everything within their power to find and punish the guilty party, and will take measures to prevent such incidents in the future.