Times NewsLine
April 24 2010
Armenian Victims of Mass Killings Remembered
24 April, 2010 Share| A+ A-
On the 95th anniversary of the mass killings by Ottoman Turks,
hundreds of Armenians paid respect to those innocent people who were
killed.
Ottoman Turks had killed close to about 1.5 million people during the
days of World War 1. Turkey has said that the people who were killed
were victims of civil war and unrest and that it was not genocide.
Placards like `Nobody and nothing will be forgotten’ and `Genocide
never gets old’ were seen as people marched to a monument overlooking
the capital.
Armenian President in his address to the nation said that the genocide
was unprecedented in its scope, monstrosity and graveness of its
consequences". About 800 Armenian intellectuals were murdered starting
24th April 1915 which was the beginning of the genocide.
"We are grateful to all those in many countries, including Turkey, who
understand the importance of averting crimes against humanity,"
Sarkisian said. In a separate development Turkey has warned US
official that if a resolution is passed stating the incident as
genocide then it might have far reaching consequences to the
diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Russia, Canada, Lebanon, Belgium, Greece,
Italy, the Vatican, France, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands,
Poland, Lithuania and Cyprus have already recognized the killings as
genocide.
On the other hand the conflict in Nagomo Karabakh has also seriously
dented the efforts of improving relations Armenia and Turkey.
While an agreement was signed between the two countries to reopen
their borders neither of them have ratified the same. Meanwhile
Armenia has decided to hold back its decision since it feels that
Turkey has been dillydallying on the issue. The borders between the
two countries were closed in 1993 on Turkey’s accusation of Armenia
backing the separatists in Nagomo Karabakh region.
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