Activists in Armenia and Georgia honored the memory of the victims of repression.

Those gathered in Yerevan, Vanadzor, and Tbilisi read the names of those who died during the Stalinist repressions. They reminded of the necessity not only to preserve and pass on the memory of what happened during those years but also to defend the rights of political prisoners.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", as part of the action "Return of Names", dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repressions, activists in Tbilisi, Yerevan, and Vanadzor will read the names of those who died during the Stalinist terror. In 2025, in Yerevan and Tbilisi, participants of the actions honored the memory of the victims of repression as part of the "Return of Names" action by reading the names of those shot. Some participants noted that it is important not only to preserve the memory of those killed during the Stalinist terror but also to support those currently imprisoned on political charges.

According to the broadcast of the "Return of Names" project on YouTube, the action took place today in Yerevan, where activists, despite the rain, gathered at the monument to Yeghishe Charents - an Armenian poet who was arrested by the NKVD in 1936 and died a year later in a prison hospital, the location of his burial is still unknown.

Activists went out and read the names of the repressed - of different ages, different professions - in particular, from the creative intelligentsia, university teachers, workers, and peasants.

Among the names was that of Armenian writer Zabel Yesayan, arrested in 1937 for counter-revolutionary activities and presumably killed in 1943. The names mentioned in Russian included both ethnic Armenians and representatives of other nationalities unrelated to Armenia, in particular, poet Osip Mandelstam.

"As my grandmother once told my father about what happened, so we must pronounce these names. They must be imprinted in the history not only of our lives but also in the history of our children. And this is the only way to stop the looming monstrous cloud of despotism that envelops Russia. By remembering annually at the return of names, attending evenings of letters to political prisoners, we ensure that these people are remembered," said one of the activists.

We must not forget a single name, we must remember everyone and fight to ensure that more people remain alive and free.

Currently, many teachers and many figures in science are deprived of the right to teach, some of them are imprisoned, noted another participant of the action in Yerevan.

"We must not forget a single name, we must remember everyone and fight to ensure that more people remain alive and free," she emphasized.

According to the video, about 20 people gathered at the monument during the broadcast. Many of those present ended their speeches with the words "Freedom to political prisoners".

In Vanadzor, those gathered also read the names of those who died during the repressions. They gathered at the monument to the victims of political repressions by sculptor Gerasim Tumanyan, which depicts a person struggling to escape from enormous vices.

In Tbilisi, one of the participants of the action spoke about her grandmother, who ended up in ALZHIR - a camp for the children and wives of the repressed. They also named 11 names of political prisoners who died this year.

Under Stalin, mass arrests, deportations, and executions were carried out on a national basis, entire nations were declared "hostile", according to the report by "Caucasian Knot" "10 myths about Stalin's role in the Great Patriotic War". The decision on which nations to repress depended directly on Stalin, historian and member of the Association of Researchers of Russian Society Boris Sokolov told "Caucasian Knot" in 2022.