On 11 October, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan argued about the interpretation of historical events of the Second World War during a meeting of the Council of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Heads of State, reported RIA Novosti.

During his speech, Aliyev recalled the role of the Azerbaijani people during the war. Then he recalled that the CIS leaders had repeatedly opposed  glorification of the Nazis. “Unfortunately, this is happening in the CIS, in particular in Armenia, where the former authorities erected a monument to the fascist executioner and traitor Gareginter-Harutyunyan in the center of Yerevan, who served with the German fascists under the nickname Garegin Nzhdeh,” Aliyev said.

He also cited a report by the Russian Foreign Ministry on the situation with the glorification of Nazism, which stated that there was information about Nzhdeh and his collaboration with the Nazis. On 8 May, the Russian MFA condemned the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia. “[Regarding] the situation with the glorification of Nazism, the spread of neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” Besides the glorification of Nzhdeh, the document also highlighted Armenian group Sasna Tsrer, which wants to create a new Armenia with the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev recalled that Nzhdeh was subsequently arrested by Soviet authorities and died in the Vladimir prison. “Unfortunately, the new government of Armenia did not dismantle this monument. I believe that there is no place for the glorification of fascism in the CIS,” the Azerbaijani leader summed up.

After Aliyev, the stage passed to Pashinyan. The Armenian Prime Minister also recalled the contribution of his people to the victory over the Nazis, noting that the Armenians fought not only in the Soviet army, but also in the Resistance Movements throughout Europe. “We support any constructive steps aimed at objective coverage of historical events of those years, and we oppose attempts to interpret them subjectively. Unfortunately, we saw such attempts in Ilham Heydarovich’s speech,” said Pashinyan.

“It seems that Hitler played only a minor role in this war, and Garegin Nzhdeh was the leader of the Nazi movement,” he continued. The truth, according to Pashinyan, is that Nzhdeh fought against the Turkish occupation of Armenia and against the Armenian genocide.

“It is said that Garegin Nzhdeh died in the Vladimir prison. Many Soviet leaders died in the Vladimir prison,” he said, wondering if all repressed people from the 1930s to the 1950s should be considered enemies of the people. “I consider it inappropriate to use this format to distort history, to bring some tension into the atmosphere of this rather important meeting. I think that at such summits we should do everything possible so that the tension between our peoples and countries does not grow, but, on the contrary, we would find ways to dialogue, compromise, mutual trust and respect. I believe that the words of the President of Azerbaijan are disrespectful, primarily for the Armenian people. And I consider it disrespectful for the heads of state and the people they represent here,” concluded Pashinyan.

According to the German Wikipedia article, Garegin Nzhdeh was an Armenian statesman and military strategist. Already in 1904, Nzhdeh he became a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which pursued the liberation of Armenian’s from the Russian and Ottoman Empire. In the first Balkan War of 1912, Nzhdeh fought for the Bulgarian Army against the Ottomans. During the First World War, Nzhdeh was deputy commander of the second Armenian volunteer unit, which fought with Tsarist troops in Eastern Anatolia against the Ottoman Empire.

In 1917, after the Russian Revolution, Nzhdeh formed the so-called “Armenian National Army”, which carried out ethnic purges against Turkish and Azerbaijani peoples, especially in Eastern Anatolia and Nakhichevan. In 1919 he returned to Armenia and pushed for the forcible Armenization of the Zangezur region (the present-day Syunik province in Southeastern Armenia), from which his Armenian volunteers completely displaced the Azerbaijani population. After Yerevan was taken by the Soviets in 1920, Nzhdeh formed the Armenian armed groups who fought against the Red Army in Zangezur.

When the Soviets completely overtook Armenia, Nzhdeh went to Iran, Bulgaria, and Romania and finally settled in the United States in 1933. After moving to the US, Nzhdeh dedicated himself to the founding of an ultranational youth organization called “Zegakron” (literally “the bearer of the race”). In addition to the liberation of Armenia from the Soviet Union, he also strived for the racial purity of Armenians. At the core of Tseghakronism was the "nation", without which the complete existence of an individual would not be possible.  Nzhdeh basically divided Armenians into three groups: 1) Tseghamard (the best part of the Armenian nation); 2) Chokhovurd (hesitant and undecided part); 3) Takank (internal enemies, the so-called “antinational forces of the devil”) According to Abramya, Nzhdeh with the aid of Tseghakronism laid the foundation for the theory of “Arminianism”, whose motto was: "Armenia only to the Armenians".

After Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power in Germany in 1938, Nzhdeh began to increasingly promote support for the National Socialists in the Armenian Diaspora. Even before the German National-Socialists came to power, Nzhdeh tried to convince them that “the Armenians are a part of the Aryan race”. After a personal meeting with Hitler in the summer of 1942, he initiated, with Drastamat Kanayan (General Dro), the deployment of the Armenian combat organizations within the Wehrmacht. According to Dewedshyan, Nzhdeh made several propagandistic speeches to Armenian prisoners of war and called on them to fight against the Soviet Union: “He who dies for Germany dies for Armenia,” he said to them. When the WWII ended, Nzhdeh was arrested in Bulgaria and handed over to Soviet military command. He was sentenced for his counter-revolutionary activities in 1920-1921 for 25 years in the Vladimir prison in 1948, where he died in the year 1955.