ARMENIANS REMEMBER 1915 KILLINGS

BBC NEWS
8017316.stm
2009/04/24 16:51:21 GMT

Thousands of people have taken part in a procession in Armenia to
commemorate the mass killings of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks
during World War I.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian reiterated that Turkey did not
have to recognise the killings as genocide in order for the states
to normalise ties.

Earlier this week, Armenia and Turkey said they had agreed on a
roadmap towards normalising relations.

US President Barack Obama is to make a statement on the mass killings
later.

However, analysts say he is unlikely to use the word "genocide" so
as not to derail the agreement, which came just weeks after Mr Obama
urged Turkey to come to terms with the past and resolve the issue.

In 2008, he said the "Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a
personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented
fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence".

" Crimes against humanity don’t expire in the memory of nations "
Serzh Sarkisian Armenian president

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were
deported en masse from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert and
elsewhere. They were killed by Ottoman troops or died from starvation
or disease.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings=2 0to be recognised
internationally as genocide – and some countries have done so.

Turkey admits that many Armenians were killed but it denies any
genocide, saying the deaths were part of the widespread fighting that
took place in World War I.

‘Recognition’

Huge crowds marched through the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Friday
to mark the 94th anniversary of the Ottoman-era killings.

Many carried torches and candles, while others carried banners blaming
Turkey for spilling the "blood of millions". Several Turkish flags
were burned.

The procession ended in the centre of the city at a monument for
the victims.

"Crimes against humanity don’t expire in the memory of nations,"
President Sarkisian said in a statement.

"International recognition and condemnation of the Armenian
genocide… is a matter of restoring historic justice."

But the president also reached out to Ankara, saying recognition of
the "genocide" was not a precondition for building bilateral relations.

On Wednesday, the countries agreed to "develop good neighbourly
relations in mutual respect and progress peace, security and stability
in the entire region".

But their joint statement did not say how the neighbours would resolve
their dispute over the killings, nor whether they had reached agreement
on opening their joint border, which has been closed since 1993.