“Holding evening events in memory of people like Monte Melkonian is absolutely unacceptable. Not only the Azerbaijani public but also the Russian public is outraged by this. It is obvious that Monte Melkonian went down in history as a person involved in the preparation and organization of terror attacks. The event should be canceled, and law enforcement agencies should take action regarding all its organizers and open a criminal case,” Russian political scientist, Director of the Institute for Political Studies Sergey Markov told the Russian bureau of Report, commenting on the evening in memory of Monte Melkonian organized by the Union of Armenians of Russia.
According to the expert, if it is not possible to stop the holding of such events further, tensions between the nations will grow: “If one of the parties honors the memory of those who used massive violence against civilians, this arouses suspicion among all other parties: Azerbaijan, Russia, and other countries. By its actions, the Armenian side glorifies massive violence and terror attacks and implies continuing this kind of activity. This is an element of unwinding a spiral of violence, which is unacceptable.”