YEREVAN (Realist English). The Armenian and the Jewish peoples have a lot in common, and the Armenian mentality is not quite Caucasian, but rather Middle Eastern, the Armenians themselves say this, the Chief Rabbi of Armenia Gershon Burstein said in an interview with the publication Details.
“The tendency to abstract thinking. A bitter sense of humor. The letter “shin” in the Armenian alphabet. Innate democracy. The Armenian mentality is not quite Caucasian, but rather Middle Eastern, as the Armenians themselves say. Moreover, we are similar in appearance. Not all of them, of course, but there is an Armenian phenotype that is difficult to distinguish from the Jewish one.
And finally, like the Jews, the Armenians are a global nation. Most of the people live outside their historical territory. There is no country where there are no Jews; there is no country where there are no Armenians. These are two outcast peoples who have been proving their right to live in their historical homeland for thousands of years, which is denied by many. There is even a Judophile anecdote: “Armenians, take care of the Jews — when they put an end to them, they will take care of you!” Or in another way: “Jews, take care of the Armenians, when they put an end to them, they will take care of us!” The moral is simple: we need to take care of each other,” he said.
The Chief Rabbi of Armenia stressed that Armenia is “one of the few countries from which Jews leave for Israel for ideological reasons, but none left because of national intolerance”:
“In pre-Soviet times, the Jews made up about 17% of the townspeople in the Yerevan province, which is a lot. You will not find a single mention of pogroms or the expulsion of Jews from here. Moreover, Armenia was once called the country of free Jews: there was never a pale of settlement here, the Jews have lived freely in all big cities. Even the Jewish encyclopedia does not mention the facts of anti-Semitism in Armenia.”
Earlier, in an interview with the Realist News Agency, the Chief Rabbi of Armenia, Gershon Burstein, stated that “this world stands on two legs — one in Israel, the other in Armenia, and the more stability in these countries, the more stable it will be around the world.”
