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Armenia marks 95th anniversary of 'genocide'

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  • Armenia marks 95th anniversary of 'genocide'

    EarthTimes.com
    April 24 2100

    Armenia marks 95th anniversary of 'genocide'

    Posted : Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:13:10 GMT
    By : dpa



    Yerevan - Hundreds of thousands of people on Saturday marked the 95th
    anniversary of the mass slaughter of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, just
    days after Armenia halted a historic reconciliation deal with Turkey.

    The 1915 murders of hundreds of thousands of Armenians has become an
    insurmountable obstacle for relations between the two countries.
    Armenia insists that Turkey recognize the slaughter as a genocide.

    On Saturday Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan laid flowers at a
    memorial for the victims in the capital Yerevan and thanked those
    countries which supported "our struggle for justice."

    The slaughter and "annihilation of an ancient culture" was a
    deliberate policy of the Ottoman Turk government, Sargsyan said. "The
    instigators of this appalling crime expected that those who survived
    would lose their national identity, scattering across the globe," he
    continued.

    The Armenian parliament unexpectedly halted the ratification process
    of normalization accords signed with Turkey in October last year. The
    accords were expected to restore diplomatic relations between the two
    countries.

    But the protocols were still awaiting ratification by the parliaments
    in Ankara and Yerevan, each side accusing the other of adding new
    conditions after the agreement was struck.

    Armenia said that Turkey was delaying its ratification of the accords,
    rendering its own ratification process "pointless."

    The 1915 killings have also remained a sore point between the two
    sides as international debate continues about their definition as
    genocide.

    Armenia traditionally commemorates the murders on April 24, the day
    when the execution of intellectuals began.

    Estimates of the number of those killed range from between 200,000 and
    1.5 million.

    Turkey has always denied that the killings constituted a genocide,
    arguing that the Armenians had sided with the Russians against the
    Turks in the First World War.
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