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Agence France Presse -- English
April 25, 2005 Monday
Armenians of Jerusalem mark 90th anniversary of massacre
JERUSALEM April 25
Around 1,000 Armenians turned out in Jerusalem on Monday to mark the
90th anniversary of the forced exile and mass killings of as many as
1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
Attending a commemorative service at the Cathedral of St James in the
Holy City, the congregation then marched to the Armenian cemetery to
the thud of drums, praying for the hundreds of thousands killed
nearly a century ago.
Participants, many of them wearing black, held aloft the red, blue
and orange flag of Armenia alongside black and white photographs of
some of the victims, an AFP correspondent said.
Placards could be seen saying: "Armenians demand justice," "Turkey
guilty of genocide," and "Turkey: your past haunts you".
Armenian patriarch Torkom Manoogian presided over further prayers as
wreathes were laid at the cemetery's memorial to the massacres.
"After 90 years of Turkish denial, the issue of the Armenian genocide
came onto the international agenda. Turkey's position has become very
shaky," community leader Serob Sahagian told the crowd.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was
falling apart.
Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in "civil strife" during World War I.
A retired school principal from the Upper Galilee said the march had
been postponed by one day because this year's anniversary fell on
Palm Sunday.
"Each of us here has a grandfather, an uncle or aunt killed. It's a
very sad day. I'm a refugee in this country and I'm not sure whether
I can return to my village in Turkey," Georgette Abakian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
April 25, 2005 Monday
Armenians of Jerusalem mark 90th anniversary of massacre
JERUSALEM April 25
Around 1,000 Armenians turned out in Jerusalem on Monday to mark the
90th anniversary of the forced exile and mass killings of as many as
1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
Attending a commemorative service at the Cathedral of St James in the
Holy City, the congregation then marched to the Armenian cemetery to
the thud of drums, praying for the hundreds of thousands killed
nearly a century ago.
Participants, many of them wearing black, held aloft the red, blue
and orange flag of Armenia alongside black and white photographs of
some of the victims, an AFP correspondent said.
Placards could be seen saying: "Armenians demand justice," "Turkey
guilty of genocide," and "Turkey: your past haunts you".
Armenian patriarch Torkom Manoogian presided over further prayers as
wreathes were laid at the cemetery's memorial to the massacres.
"After 90 years of Turkish denial, the issue of the Armenian genocide
came onto the international agenda. Turkey's position has become very
shaky," community leader Serob Sahagian told the crowd.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was
falling apart.
Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in "civil strife" during World War I.
A retired school principal from the Upper Galilee said the march had
been postponed by one day because this year's anniversary fell on
Palm Sunday.
"Each of us here has a grandfather, an uncle or aunt killed. It's a
very sad day. I'm a refugee in this country and I'm not sure whether
I can return to my village in Turkey," Georgette Abakian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress