ARMENIANS COMMEMORATE 1915-18 MASS KILLINGS

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
April 24 2007

April 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) — Armenians around the world today
commemorated the 92nd anniversary of the start of of mass killings
and deportations of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The killings, which have been recognized by some countries as genocide,
remain a major roadblock in relations between Armenia and Turkey.

A leading Armenian church official, Catholicos Garegin II, led
prayers today at a monument in the Armenian capital of Yerevan that
memorializes the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who were killed
from 1915 to 1918.

Throughout the day, mourners climbed the hill to lay flowers at the
memorial where a flame has burned since 1965 — the 50th anniversary
of the start of the mass killings.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian
were among those paying tribute to the dead.

For many Armenians — both within the country and from its large
diaspora — visiting Yerevan on April 24 has become an annual ritual.

That’s the day, in 1915, that Armenia says Ottoman authorities arrested
scores of Armenian academics and members of the intelligentsia amid
mass killings and deportations.

More than 20 countries — including Russia, France, and Canada —
have recognized the killings as genocide. Armenians say that Turks
killed up to 1.5 millions Armenians from 1915 to 1918 as the Ottoman
Empire was crumbling.

Ankara maintains that the killings were part of the wider conflict
of World War I, and that the number of Armenians who died was closer
to 300,000.

Yerevan Wants Recognition Of Genoicide

It is recognition that the Armenians want — international recognition
for what they say was an orchestrated policy of extermination.

Former Armenian Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian spoke to RFE/RL
about the dispute today at the Yerevan monument.

"I think we don’t have to focus on and be excited by the wave of
recognition, because the Armenian genocide and the loss of homeland
by our people are historical facts," Hovannisian said.

More than 20 countries, including Russia, France, and Canada, have
passed legislation recognizing the killings as genocide.

The genocide debate continues to negatively impact ties between
Armenian and Turkey.

Turkey and Armenia do not have formal diplomatic relations and
the 268-kilometer border between the two countries has been closed
since 1993.

Speaking to RFE/RL today, Hrant Margarian, the leader of the
nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun party,
said relations could be improved if Turkey would recognize the killings
as genocide:

"No state can live while denying its past," Margarian told RFE/RL.

"It can’t live [while] denying reality. It is good for Turkey to
recognize the Armenian genocide."

Ankara, however, doesn’t agree. Turkey has said that to establish
diplomatic relations it would require Armenia to drop its policy of
seeking international recognition for the killings as genocide.

Many countries are wary of doing so, fearing it would damage their
own relations with Turkey.

In the United States, the Congress — dominated by the opposition
Democrats — has endorsed a bill to officially recognize the Armenian
killings as genocide.

But despite lobbying from the United States’s powerful Armenian lobby,
the bill has met with opposition from supporters of the presidential
administration, which is eager to maintain good ties with its NATO
ally Turkey.

(RFE/RL’s Armenian Service contributed to this report.)