The Boston Globe
April 25, 2009 Saturday
Armenians mark massacre anniversary
Call on Turkey to recognize WWI deaths as genocide
By Avet Demourian, Associated Press
YEREVAN, Armenia – Tens of thousands of Armenians marched through the
capital yesterday to commemorate the 94th anniversary of the start of
mass killings by Ottoman Turks, many calling on Turkey to recognize
the slayings as genocide.
Armenia and Turkey said Thursday that they are close to restoring full
relations and reopening their border after 15 years. But neither side
has indicated how they might resolve the dispute over the killings
that President Obama yesterday referred to as one of the 20th
century’s “greatest atrocities.”
Throngs marched through the Armenian capital with torches and candles
to mark the anniversary of the rounding-up of a few hundred Armenian
intellectuals in what was then known as Constantinople – present-day
Istanbul – by Ottoman authorities. Their arrest was swiftly followed
by the military’s forced evacuation of ordinary Armenians from their
homes in actions that spiraled into the mass slaughter of the Armenian
population.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Turks in what
was then the Ottoman Empire, while Turkey says the killings occurred
at a time of civil conflict and the casualty figures are
inflated. Scholars widely view the event as the first genocide of the
20th century.
Yesterday’s procession began with a burning of Turkish flags, and many
carried placards blaming Turkey for spilling the “blood of millions”
and calling on Ankara to acknowledge the killings as genocide. It
ended in central Yerevan at a monument to the victims of the killings,
and a liturgy was served at churches throughout the country.
“Crimes against humanity don’t expire in the memory of nations,”
President Serge Sarkisian of Armenia said in a
statement. “International recognition and condemnation of the
Armenian genocide . . . is a matter of restoring historic justice.”
The procession, led by nationalist groups, is an annual event and is
not expected to affect the reconciliation process.
The two countries also differ over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh
region, controlled by Armenia after a six-year war that broke out in
the waning days of the Soviet Union. Turkey – which shares close
cultural and linguistic relations with Azerbaijan and wants it to
absorb the region – insists its talks with Armenia proceed in parallel
with Armenian-Azeri discussions. The United States and European Union
have urged Turkey and Armenia to resolve their differences.