Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 15 2010
SCHWARZENEGGER ORDERS TO MOURN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS REPORTS
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced April 19-26 as
a week of commemorating the victims of the alleged genocide of
Armenians, a claim on the World War I-era mass killings in the Ottoman
Empire, Armenian reports say. Schwarzenegger said in a statement that
the horrors of the past should be recalled to prevent a repetition of
history. The Armenian genocide is a terrible violation of human rights
and an event that insulted the world, the statement claimed. 1.5
innocent Armenians lost their lives in 1915-1923, having succumbed to
mass killings in the Ottoman Empire, and 500,000 others were forced to
leave their homeland. Historians note that during the developments,
Armenians had begun an uprising. They took up arms against Turkey and
assisted Russia, one of Turkeys enemies in WWI. To counter these
actions, the Ottoman Empire decided to resettle the Armenians. The
latter claim that their predecessors were subjected to genocide in the
process, while Ankara rejects the allegations and has offered to
research the events through a joint commission of historians.