The desecration of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Armenia is a results of a lack of awareness of Indian historical past and Gandhi’s socio-political contributions to India’s wrestle for independence, mentioned Karen Mkrtchyan, a member of Bright Armenia, a political occasion based in 2015.
On April 29, the statue of Gandhi, put in final 12 months on his one hundred and fiftieth delivery anniversary, was set on hearth and desecrated in a park within the Armenian capital Yerevan. A 61-year outdated Armenian nationwide pleaded responsible, native information reviews mentioned.
An organisation that calls itself the ‘Yerevan Alternative Municipality’ posted photographs of the desecrated monument on social media, calling for the statue to be demolished, however didn’t declare duty for the vandalism.
Two days earlier than the statue was burned and a plaque with Gandhi’s title demounted and damaged, a gaggle of protesters had additionally thrown eggs on the monument, with pictures of the damaged plaque and egg shells widespread on social media platforms. Following the vandalism, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry issued an announcement condemning the desecration and referred to as it a “provocation against the centuries-old Armenian-Indian friendship, dynamically developing since the independence.”
Photo caption: The statue of Mahatma Gandhi set on hearth by miscreants in Yerevan, Armenia on April 29. (Photo credit score: ‘Yerevan Alternative Municipality’/Facebook web page)
The Indian Embassy advised indianexpress.com on May 5, that the statue had been collectively put in by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and native authorities in Yerevan, with India assuming duty for the creation and transportation of the monument to Armenia.
In a Facebook put up, the ‘Yerevan Alternative Municipality’ referred to as the Indian freedom fighter “anti-Armenian” and mentioned “it will fight to remove the statue of the anti-Armenian figure from our capital. We ask our compatriots to show patience, to endure the presence of the statue of this anti-Armenian figure until we remove it.” Pointing to the sensitivity of matter and powerful diplomatic relations between India and Armenia, the Embassy of India declined so as to add additional feedback relating to the incident.
The objections particularly must do with Gandhi’s help for the Ottoman Empire that was disintegrating in 1920 as a result of empire having been compelled to concede giant elements of its territory to the Allied Powers in the course of the First World War beneath the clauses of the Treaty of Sèvres.
At that point, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of modern-day Turkey, obtained ethical help from Gandhi within the trigger for the Turkish independence motion. The brutality of the Armenian Genocide beneath the Ottoman Empire that lasted between 1915 to 1917, had been contemporary wounds when British newspapers started highlighting Gandhi’s help for Atatürk and the Khilafat motion, a pan-Islamist political protest marketing campaign led by Muslims of British India to revive the caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate, who was thought-about the chief and political authority of the Muslims, and to protest in opposition to sanctions positioned on the caliph and the Ottoman Empire after the First World War by the Treaty of Sèvres.
Two days earlier than the statue in Yerevan was burned and a plaque with Gandhi’s title demounted and damaged, a gaggle of protesters had additionally thrown eggs on the monument, with pictures of the damaged plaque and egg shells widespread on social media platforms. (Photo credit score: screenshot of video by ‘Yerevan Alternative Municipality’/Facebook web page)
“The major shock came by with the publication of the Treaty of Sevres on May 14, 1920, in India. This treaty announced the terms of dismembering Turkey and this particular event crossed the limits of Gandhi’s humiliation and he completely lost his confidence and faith in the British sense of justice,” writes Benazir Banu, a scholar on the Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, in her analysis paper ‘Mahatma Gandhi and Turkish War of Independence’.
“Obviously the lack of understanding of Indian history comes into play here, because Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat movement and the Ottoman Empire was sorely intra-Indian, to bring Hindu-Muslim unity and to oppose the British rule,” Mkrtchyan mentioned. Mkrtchyan lived and studied in India for near a decade earlier than returning to Armenia in 2016 and studied Indian historical past throughout his time within the nation.
“Gandhi saw something sinister in every reason of the British and he had his own reasons for it. So someone with very little understanding of Indian history and the context at that time can easily misinterpret it. And of course the Genocide is a soft issue for every Armenian. So once you see that Gandhi supported the Turks, Atatürk and the Ottoman Empire, it brings about a lot of emotions in people who do not understand the context and people get very angry,” Mkrtchyan provides.
A small group of protestors carrying anti-Mahatma Gandhi posters congregated on an undisclosed date close to the statue of the Indian freedom fighter in a park in Yerevan, Armenia. (Photo credit score: screenshot of video by ‘Yerevan Alternative Municipality’/Facebook web page)
This isn’t the primary time that discussions surrounding Gandhi have come up in Armenia, albeit amongst small teams. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has constantly claimed to advocate non-violence and has mentioned that he attracts inspiration from two of essentially the most iconic worldwide proponents of this philosophy—Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela; it was additionally what partly, helped him rise to energy.
In 2018, Pashniyan tried to copy Gandhi’s Dandi March, often known as the Salt March, a deliberate try at tax resistance and nonviolent protest in opposition to the British salt monopoly in pre-Independence India. Only in Pashniyan’s case, he was protesting former Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s try to carry onto energy by having the Armenian Parliament elect him prime minister, regardless of promising to not search that workplace.
That 12 months, Pashinyan determined to stroll some 193 kilometers throughout the nation from Gyumri, the second-largest metropolis, to the capital Yerevan. Back then, his opponents mocked Pashniyan’s imitation of Gandhi’s march and since he had worn a camouflage-pattern T-shirt in the course of the stroll regardless of not having served within the obligatory navy conscription within the nation. But his supporters mentioned that these served as examples of his humility. To coincide with the one hundred and fiftieth delivery anniversary of Gandhi, in May 2019, Armenia had additionally issued stamps in commemoration.
Photo credit score: Stamps commemorating the one hundred and fiftieth delivery anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi issued by Armenia in 2019. Photo credit score: Wikimedia Commons
Following the vandalism of the statue in Yerevan final week, Mkrtchyan mentioned that Pashniyan’s critics had added gasoline to the hearth. “They are blaming him for associating with Gandhi and that it was his initiative to install Gandhi’s statue in Armenia, because he equals himself with Gandhi. Whereas this is not true,” mentioned Mkrtchyan. But Indian residents in Armenia who spoke on the situation of anonymity and the Embassy of India in Yerevan advised indianexpress.com that the vandalism has been extensively condemned in native information reviews in addition to by different Armenians on social media, with “fringe elements” having been blamed for creating nuisance and useless provocation between two pleasant nations.
“Being an Armenian, the (Armenian) Genocide is a big thing for me. But I will understand if someone who is leading the struggle for his own country is going to do something I may or may not like,” mentioned Mkrtchyan. “Nobody puts up Gandhi’s statue because he was Gandhi. Political parties may come and go but Gandhi remains an important part of India’s foreign policy and soft power. He represents India.”