SATURDAY MARKS 95TH SINCE OTTOMAN GENOCIDE OF ETHNIC ARMENIANS
Itar-Tass
24.04.2010, 07.45
YEREVAN, April 24 (Itar-Tass) – Armenians all over the world are
marking the 95th anniversary since the start of the genocide of their
ancestors in the Ottoman Empire.
On the orders from the Empire’s rulers, mass pogroms and deportations
of ethnic Armenians began April 24, 1915. They led to the eventual
loss of life by about 1.5 million people.
Commemorative events will be held in all parts of the world. Monuments
to the genocide victims have been built practically in all countries
where the Armenians live today.
The Armenian global community outside Armenia exceeds 5 million people,
including 2.5 million living in Russia, about a million in the U.S.,
and from 450,000 to 500,000 people in France.
The main ceremony is to be held in Yerevan at the memorial to victims
of the genocide. It was built by the government of the Armenian Soviet
Socialist Republic in 1967 on the Tsitsernakaberd hill.
The memorial symbolizes the grief over those who died and the nation’s
revival.
Dozens of thousands of people of different age groups and political
affiliations are expected to bring flowers to the memorial Saturday
morning.
Many representatives of Armenian communities abroad have come to
Yerevan to take part in the April 24 memorial procession.
International efforts to attain recognition of the fact of Ottoman
genocide are a priority of Armenia’s foreign policy.
Expansion of the movement for prevention of genocides is inevitable
and does not have an alternative, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
said in an address to the nation in connection with the date.
"The crime that was committed exactly on this day 95 years ago did
not have a precedent either in the history of the Armenian people or
in world history in general in terms of scale, heinousness and the
scope of aftermaths," the address said.
Sargsyan expressed gratitude "to all the people in many countries,
including Turkey, who understand the importance of preventing crimes
against humanity and who stand side by side with us in this struggle."
"This is a process the expansion of which is inescapable and does
not have an alternative," he said.
"Together with the entire Armenian nation, I bow my head today to the
memory of all the innocent victims of that genocide," Sargsyan said.
"The best they left to us demands that we live and work in the name
of goodness and beauty, for the benefit of our Armenian homeland and
our national aspirations, and in the interests of entire humankind.
"We will not betray their memory or their commandments," the address
said.
The genocide has already been recognized by a number of countries
/France and Greece went farther than others and passed appropriated
laws/ and the European parliament.
In 1995, Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament issued
a statement condemning the genocide.
A museum and institute of the history of genocide opened next to the
memorial in Yerevan in 1995.
From: Baghdasarian