ARMENIAN MEMORIAL VANDALIZED IN FRANCE

The New Anatolian
April 19 2006

A memorial in southeast France honoring those killed in the so-called
Armenian genocide in 1915 was vandalized just a week before it was
to be unveiled, Armenian organizations said yesterday.

The memorial in Lyon was scrawled with graffiti reading, “There was no
genocide,” according to the Committee for the Defense of the Armenian
Cause and the Council of Armenian Organizations in France.

The groups expressed indignation over Monday’s incident and demanded
tight security both during the monument’s unveiling on April 24 and
during other commemorations around France the same day.

April 24 is the date chosen by Armenian communities worldwide to mark
the Armenian genocide claims. Turks say that the number of deaths is
inflated and that the victims were killed in civil unrest in a time
of war.