Each of us is the heir to the sad and painful pages of our history, and Lebanon has its share of these pages.
Many centuries ago, the Armenian King Tigran conquered Lebanon, but after centuries, the people of that great king set foot on this soil as a migrant, survivor of torture and persecution. However, they never asked for alms and with their work rose to their feet, became loved and respected by the local population. Thousands of orphans, too, have found shelter in this land, in Dzhibile in an orphanage “Bird’s Nest” of Danish missionary Maria Yakubson, in other orphanages.

94-year-old grandfather Khachatur is from the village Ouyts of Syunik region. From their village 301 men participated in the Great Patriotic War, 157 didn’t return.
– On January 3, 1943 the offensive began. We liberated Rostov, Odessa, Kaliningrad, reached the borders of Romania. I was in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Vienna, – tells grandfather Khachatur.

On April 28, 2015, in Moscow, in the Gallery of the RF Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, opened an international exhibition on the theme “In the struggle against Nazism, we were together,” which will last until the end of October.
Organizers of the exposition are: RF Council of Federation, State Duma, ministries of foreign affairs, defense and culture, CIS Executive Committee, International Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of CIS member states, Russian military and historical society, Russian Federation Commanders Club. The opening ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Russians are grateful people. Recently, people from Anapa brought a handful of soil from the grave of my father. I felt better. As if my father returned home and has his grave in his homeland. These people told that in that Russian village all weddings begin at the memorial plate of my father, the bride and groom water trees, put flowers on the grave. My sons have repeatedly been in Anapa and participated in the events.

These days the book of writer and journalist Sergey Vardanyan “Bloody seed” in Russian was released. The book talks about the participation of the Armenians of Abkhazia and Krasnodar in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Particular attention is paid to the exploits of 13 Armenians – Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War national divisions were formed. The first Armenian 67th Division of the 11th Army, formed on the initiative of Miasnikyan, went to the front. Then Armenian 390th, 261st, 408th divisions were formed.
In August 1941, in Leninakan 409th Division was formed, which in1942 was renamed “Armenian”. The division commander was Colonel Artashes Vasilian, Commissar – Arshaluys Hayrapetyan, deputy commanders – Colonels Ivan Prokopenko and Stepan Stepanyan, head of the politburo – Liparit Vardanyan. There were 15 thousand soldiers and officers in the division.

One of the famous battles of the First World War can be regarded as the Battle of Gallipoli, which is also known as the Dardanelles operation. The armed forces of the Entente had the goal – to establish control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. If they succeeded, the Allies could bring Turkey out of the war. The second goal was to deprive the Russians of the possibility to possess these same straits. However, Turkey, with the effective support of Germany, could resist and destroy the plans of the Allies.