Armenia does not attend military parade on Belarus liberation 80th anniversary

Minsk had invited Armenia to participate in the military parade held on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders, but the Armenian parade crews did not arrive, announced Aleksandr Volfovich, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus.

A military parade was held Wednesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, in which, in addition to the Belarusian military, parade squads from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan took part.

"Armenia was also invited. But for some incomprehensible—most likely subjective—reasons, we understand what those reasons are, unfortunately, the Armenian delegation, the Armenian parade crews did not arrive to participate in the parade," Volfovich said, reports BelTA.

Also, he drew attention to the fact that "grandfathers and great-grandfathers of the Armenian people took part in the liberation of Belarus, the Soviet Union, took part in the Great Patriotic War [in World War II]."

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had announced that neither he nor any other Armenian official will visit Belarus as long as Alexander Lukashenko is president there, and that the Belarusian leader should apologize for his words. According to Pashinyan, the president of Belarus stated that he had participated in the preparation of the escalation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, and "assisted, believed, and wished for the victory of Azerbaijan."