Czech Culture Minister Refuses To Participate in Azeri Event

LIDICE, Czech Republic (PanArmenian.Net) — Armenia’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ashot Hovakimian visited the Czech village of Lidice, where the Azerbaijani Embassy jointly with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azer-Czech union are planning “to commemorate the Khojali events.”
Accompanied by the Czech Armenians’ spiritual leader, Archimandrite Barsegh Pilavchian, Armenia Club chairman Tigran Abrahamyan and Orer magazine editor-in-chief Hakob Asatryan, Hovakimian met with the head of Lidice’s village administration and the director of the Lidice Memorial.
The Armenian Ambassador explained the events that led to the occurrence of what happened in Khojali and produced photographs to the international community present.
The head of the Lidice village administration Joseph Klima was informed that the Czech Minster of Culture refused to attend the Azeri event and assured the Azerbaijani organizers, who tried to attract the villagers’ attention to the event by promising an abundant dinner, that making anti-Armenian statements would not be tolerated.
The Nazis destroyed the village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia on June 10, 1942, killing every adult male and 52 women. All the surviving women and children were then deported to concentration camps, or if found suitable to be “Germanized,” sent to the greater Reich. In 1945 the re-establishment of the village began soon after the liberation of Czechoslovakia in May 1945.
The village was later declared a national cultural memorial. By the beginning of the 1950s, more than 100 houses were built not far from the original site of the village’s massacre. Its Rose Garden became symbolic of the continuity of life and was created with a donation of 29,000 rose bushes from 32 countries.