MONUMENT TO VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BE ESTABLISHED IN KIEV

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.02.2010 16:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On February 25 Holoseievski District Council of Kiev
regarded a proposal by the Armenian community to erect a monument
dedicated to 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The council
decided to allocate a place for the monument in the Odessa square of
the capital.

As Arthur Martirosyan, deputy of district council, vice-president
of National Congress of Armenians in Ukraine, Head of the Armenian
Diaspora of Holoseievski District told Analitika.at.ua, this is a very
important event for the whole of Armenian Diaspora of Ukraine and
the Armenian people on the whole. The MP believes that the monument
to Armenian Genocide victims will eventually become a site Armenians
of Kiev and guests from all over Ukraine visit. Martirosyan thanked
all the deputies who expressed willingness to support the undertaking.

In turn, deputy of district council Anatoly Suldin praising the
fruitful work of the Armenian community of Holoseievski region,
expressed hope for further strengthening of Ukrainian-Armenian
friendship. He also expressed hope that the Armenian people will not
remain indifferent to the recognition of Holodomor.

On April 24 a capsule with Armenian soil, a commemorative stone and
a cross will be placed at the location.

A sculpture composition will be created within a year, President of
National Congress of Armenians in Ukraine Ashot Avanesyan said.

The Armenian Genocide(1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria.

To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.