‘GENOCIDE`PROTEST ANGERS ANKARA
Euronews.net, France
April 24 2008
Thousands of Armenians have taken to the streets of the capital
Yeravan to commemorate the deaths of one and a half million people
killed during the fall of the Ottoman empire.
Turkey refutes Armenian claims the massacres, carried out during the
First World War, amounted to systematic genocide. But the issue is
casting a shadow over Turkey`s bid to join the European Union and
it`s become a source of tension complicating Ankara`s relations with
the United States.
March organiser Fatul Aratunyan vowed to carry on fighting, pledging
he said, "to go on with this march until the whole world learns about
this tragedy and we get our historic land back."
The protesters, marching by torch and candle-light, demonstrated
outside foreign consular buildings chanting "recognise genocide"
before burning a Turkish flag.
In the morning thousands laid wreaths of carnations and tulips at
a memorial for those who perished in the killings which took place
between 1915 and 1923.
Ankara says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim
Turks were killed during the violent and chaotic break-up of the
Ottoman Empire.
The tiny ex-Soviet republic is sandwiched between Turkey and
Azerbaijan.
A law in Turkey makes it illegal to refer to the killings as genocide
although the Turkish President recently called for new dialogue to
normalise ties.
Until this day the land border between Armenia and Turkey remains
closed.