On 30 August, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Armenian delegation would not participate at the 80th anniversary of the launch of World War II in Poland on 1 September, due to being a subtle and delicate issue for Armenia.

“It is a principal issue. We represent the country which had direct relation to World War II. Our grandfathers fought in the Soviet army against the Nazis. We made a great contribution to the common victory, and then, together with others, we protected our great motherland [the Soviet Union]. And, of course, it is normal that we have a sensitive approach on this issue in terms of the organization of such events at various venues,” Mnatsakanyan noted.

“Armenia has some reservations in regard to the discussions on this matter on different platforms. Our forefathers fought in the war, we had marshals, generals and heroes of the USSR. We suffered a tremendous amount of casualties, and it is natural that this topic is a highly sensitive topic for us,” the minister emphasized.

A day earlier, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also turned down the invitation to participate at the anniversary. He stated the reasoning as being based on the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been invited to attend. “The liberation of Eastern and Central Europe, the final defeat of Nazism on German territory were made possible only through the heroic efforts of the whole multinational Red Army. That said, Kazakhstan, the countries of Central Asia and Russia were not invited to Warsaw,” said Anatoly Glaz, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.

The Polish government began inviting countries to the anniversary in March 2019. The decision was based more on preferring to invite the contemporary political allies of the country instead of using historical context. “We have already invited a wide circle of world leaders that is why we expect and are convinced that this will be a global event,” Jacek Sasin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland said in July. He added that the attendance by Russian President Vladimir Putin would be inappropriate. “I think it would be inappropriate to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the armed aggression against Poland with the participation of a leader who today treats his neighbours using the same methods,” he noted.

The decision sparked a furious reaction from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The Polish authorities justify their intentions with some ‘modern realities,’ ignoring the logic of history. There is no place for our country in this scheme despite its decisive contribution to defeating Hitler’s Reich and the liberation of Poland from Nazi invaders. […] Let it remain on the conscience of the current Polish leadership,” read the statement of the Russian MFA.

Azerbaijan and Georgia on the other hand confirmed their participation at the upcoming event. The Georgian delegation will be represented by the President Salome Zurabishvili, while the Azerbaijani delegation will be represented by Mahmud Mammadguliyev, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.