China Daily
April 25 2005
Ottoman massacre of Armenians remembered across Europe
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-25 09:24
The Armenian community in France and elsewhere in Europe held solemn
masses, marches and memorials on Sunday to mark the 90th anniversary
of mass killings by Ottoman Turks which a growing number of countries
have recognised as a genocide.
The Parisian landmark of Notre Dame cathedral hosted a requiem mass
Sunday and many other gatherings took place across the city.
Some 350,000 ethnic Armenians live in France.
The mass was followed by a meeting at an Armenian monument where on
Friday French President Jacques Chirac and Armenian President Robert
Kocharian placed a wreath.
French Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande told the gathering of
3,000, mostly Armenians, that he would propose a law in parliament to
penalize those who deny the genocide.
“The Armenian genocide was the first of the 20th century, but, alas,
not the only one. The Armenian cause is not only for Armenians, but
for all those who are committed to human rights and the recognition
of genocide,” Hollande said.
The protesters later marched to the capital’s famed Champs Elysees
avenue and the nearby Turkish embassy.
“This is a protest march against Turkey, which continues to reject it
was a genocide,” said Alain Saboundjian, a spokesman for an Armenian
group in France.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was
falling apart. Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands
of Turks were killed in “civil strife” during World War I.
Some 80,000 Armenians live in the Mediterranean port of Marseille,
where the cornerstone of an Armenian monument due to be inaugurated
next year was put in place Sunday. The stone included written
messages from some of the region’s ethnic Armenian children.
“We had to wait until 2001 for France to recognise the Armenian
genocide. How long will it be before Turkey does?,” said regional
politician Michel Vauzelles, who addressed the crowd of several
thousand gathered for the occasion.
A requiem mass and a march to a proposed site of a genocide memorial
took place in the central city of Lyon, while a wreath was placed at
a war memorial in the northeastern city of Strasbourg.
Armenian religious and community leaders headed a cortege of around
1,000 people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv carrying candles
and red carnations.
“We want Turkey and other countries who have not already recognised
the genocide to do so,” said Karapiet Bagratouni, one of 3,000
Armenians in the city.
Greece recognised the massacres as a genocide in 1997 when it named
April 24 as “The memorial day of the genocide of Armenians by the
Turkish regime” and in Athens on Sunday a crowd of 500 including
diplomats and Greek officials placed a wreath at a war memorial.
The row over whether or not to call the killings genocide has
embarrassed Turkey as it readies for the start of European Union
accession talks later this year.
In Germany this week members of parliament from across the political
spectrum appealed to Turkey to accept the massacre of Armenians as
part of its history, saying this would help its EU aspirations.
On Tuesday, Poland joined a list of 15 countries that have officially
acknowledged the killings as genocide. Russia, the UN and the
European parliament all recognise the massacres as genocide.
Photo 1: Visiting Armenian President Robert Kotcharian and his French
counterpart, Jacques Chirac, background, stand before the Armenian
Monument in Paris, after laying a wreath Friday, April 22, 2005. This
weekend Armenia marks the 90th anniversary of what it calls the
genocide perpetrated by Turkey between 1915 and 1917, killing up to
1.5 million Armenians. Turkey rejects the claim, saying the number of
deaths is inflated and that the victims were killed in civil unrest
during the collapse of the empire.[AP]
Photo 2: People attend commemorations marking the 90th anniversary of
Armenian genocide in Paris.[AFP]
Photo 3: Armenians visit the memorial to the dead to mark the 90th
anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians in Yerevan, April 24,
2005. Hundreds of thousands of people clutching tulips, carnations
and daffodils climbed a hill in Armenia’s capital on Sunday to lay
wreaths and remember the 1.5 million they say were killed 90 years
ago in Ottoman Turkey. From the top the crowds could see the heights
of Mount Ararat now in eastern Turkey, the region where Armenia says
its people were slaughtered in a deliberate genocide during the chaos
surrounding the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. The mountain is
a potent symbol for the Christian nation but it lies out of reach
across a fortified frontier.[Reuters]
Photo 4: A violinist performs in front of the Eiffel tower during the
commemorations of the national day of remembrance for the victims and
heroes of deportation, which is part of the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of the concentration camps, in Paris April 24, 2005.
[Reuters]