AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
April 16 2010

Schwarzenegger orders to mourn Armenian `genocide’ victims: reports

16-04-2010 05:42:48

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
Turkey’s 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.*