ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 13, 2005 Wednesday 8:03 AM Eastern Time
March to Yerevan memorial to victims of 1915 genocide planned
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
As many as 1.5 million people will march on April 24 to the Yerevan
memorial to victims of the 1915 genocide in the Ottoman Emperor,
Vartan Oskanyan, the Armenian foreign minister, told a news
conference on Wednesday.
The number of the marchers is significant as 1.5 million people fell
victim to the tragic events of 90 years ago, the minister said. He
said people from dozens of countries would be among the marchers.
“Ninety years have passed since the first occurrence of genocide in
the 20th century but there has been no international acknowledgement
of the crime,” the minister said. “Turkey has no wish to acknowledge
genocide and even stepped up the efforts to deny it,” Oskanyan said.
Meanwhile, Ankara, he said, “looks forward to becoming a member of
the European Union, the organisation that is based on human rights
and liberties, that recognizes the principles of historic justice and
tolerance. “Therefore, this problem goes beyond the framework of
Armenia and is of significance to entire humanity,” the minister
believes.
The matter of international acknowledgement of the fact of genocide
remains on the order of the day for Armenia’s foreign policy, the
minister said. He recalled that the United Nations classes genocide
with threats and challenges facing humanity, that this evil is a
threat to the whole world.