RTT News
April 25 2010

Armenians Remember Victims Of Ottoman Mass Killings

(RTTNews) – Several thousands of Armenians gathered in the capital
city of Yerevan Saturday to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the
mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, which
they term as "genocide." Armenians in remembrance to the victims laid
flowers at a hilltop memorial under gloomy conditions. Turkey stoutly
denies the events of that time as genocide, and believes the number of
those killed as highly inflated and were mostly victims of civil war
and unrest.

Armenians came to the service in huge numbers despite the rain, with
posters and placards. President Serge Sarkisian called the killings as
unparalleled in "its scope, monstrosity and graveness of its
consequences while addressing the nation."

Sarkisian added his country was "grateful to all those in many
countries, including Turkey, who understand the importance of averting
crimes against humanity."

The commemoration comes in the background of continued tensions
between Armenia and Turkey that further deteriorated after a peace
deal between the two nations fell apart. Thursday, the ruling
coalition of Armenia ceased all efforts at ratification in parliament
of the deal normalizing relations with Turkey, primarily on Turkey
refusal to ratify the protocols without preconditions.

Turkey’s preconditions relates mainly to the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh that is under the control of Armenia. Turkey closed
its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest against Armenia’s war with
its neighbor Azerbaijan over the enclave, which is within Azerbaijan
but under the control of ethnic Armenian forces.

Turkey and Armenia had signed a historic accord in 2009 to
re-establish diplomatic ties after years of hostilities that followed
the World War I mass killings of Armenians.

The events of the genocide claimed by Armenia took place in April
1915. Armenia claims that the Ottoman government embarked upon a
systematic decimation of its civilian Armenian population at that
time, with varying intensity until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased
to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. Armenia claims
its population under the Ottoman state at about two million in 1915,
but over one million perished by 1918 with hundreds of thousands had
become homeless and stateless refugees. Armenia states that by 1923
virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had
disappeared.

by RTT Staff Writer

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