The Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Thursday that it expected the Armenian authorities to remove the term “annexation” used in the new 8th-grade history textbook in reference to the events in the South Caucasus in the early 19th centuries, when the territory of modern-day Armenia became part of the Russian Empire following the 1826-1828 Russo-Persian war.
“We expect that the Armenian authorities will not allow the transfer of such a textbook to schools and will not turn a blind eye to such unceremonious attempts to distort our common past,” the Russian ministry said.
Tamara Sargsian, an official from Armenia’s Ministry of Education, told reporters on Friday that a corrected version of the textbook will be distributed to schools. She said the disputed section will no longer use the phrase “annexation of Eastern Armenia to Russia.”
“It was proposed to revise that approach and the author has adjusted the wording to align with the curriculum for Armenian history,” Sargsian said.
The official did not immediately link the change to the Russian reaction, but did not explain why the change had not been made earlier.
“It wasn’t so much a mistake as it was that the authors may not have considered the issue from that perspective,” the head of the Ministry’s Department of Public Education explained.
In its statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the textbook, saying that “questioning the special role of the Russian Empire, and later the USSR and Russia, in the formation of today’s Armenia means going against well-known facts.”
“It represents another shameless attempt to rewrite our common history in the best traditions of Western propaganda and political engineering, where white is called black, with the active participation of certain Armenian figures who are zealously trying to serve their patrons,” it claimed.
Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin told reporters on Friday that he had not yet discussed the history textbook issue with Armenian officials. However, he pointed to the “moral aspect” of the issue, stressing the need for “respect for the memory of past generations.”
“There have been no substantive discussions on my part yet. It’s only the second day since my return from vacation, but I believe this is a topic worth discussing together,” the ambassador said.
The Russian ambassador today was attending in an event commemorating the 197th anniversary of the heroic battle of Oshakan in Armavir. In 1827, the Russian-Armenian side won the Russo-Persian battle. Months later, on February 21, 1828, the Treaty of Turkmenchay was signed, resulting in Persia ceding control of several areas in the South Caucasus, including the territory of modern-day Armenia, to the Russian Empire.
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