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ARMENIANS AT HOME AND AROUND WORLD MARK GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY
by Naharnet Newsdesk
NaharNet
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/38042-armenians-at-home-and-around-world-mark-genocide-anniversary
April 25 2012
Lebanon
Armenians around the world Tuesday marked the 97th anniversary of the
World War I massacre of their ancestors by Ottoman Turks, rekindling
anger at Turkey for denying the deaths were genocide.
Thousands took part in an annual procession to a hilltop memorial
in the Armenian capital Yerevan, carrying candles and flowers to lay
at the eternal flame at the center of the monument commemorating the
mass killings in what was then the Ottoman Empire.
"Today we, just as many, many others all over the world, bow to the
memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian genocide," President
Serzh Sarkisian, who led officials laying wreaths at the monument,
said in a statement.
"This day is one of those moments when the entire nation rallies
around the unification of our homeland," he said.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War
I as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by many
historians and several other countries.
Turkey angrily denies a genocide occurred and argues up to 500,000
Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in civil strife when
Armenians rose against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading
Russian troops.
U.S. President Barack Obama called for "a full, frank, and just
acknowledgment of the facts" of the "brutal" killings.
While denouncing the 1915 massacre as "one of the worst atrocities
of the 20th century," Obama did not use the term "genocide," but he
implicitly called for Turkey to acknowledge the role of its Ottoman
forefathers.
In Yerevan, 75-year-old Tsovinar Tumasian was among those in the
procession.
She said her father had fought to save women and children from Turkish
attacks and urged other countries to pressure Turkey to accept the
killings as genocide.
"If they are not forced to do so, they will not recognize the genocide
as fact. They think that with time, everyone will forget about it,"
Tumasian told Agence France Presse as her relatives helped her make
her way up the hill towards the monument.
The annual commemoration comes after the dispute between Armenia and
its neighbor Turkey was reignited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
recent attempt to bring in a law criminalizing denial of the genocide.
After a diplomatic row erupted, France's top court struck down the
law in February on the grounds that it infringed freedom of expression.
Both Sarkozy and his rival presidential candidate Francois Hollande
marked the Armenian anniversary in Paris by attending a ceremony and
expressing support for the passage of a newly-worded bill that would
outlaw genocide denial. France is home to a large Armenian community.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, thousands demonstrated in a suburb of the
capital Beirut and denounced Turkey's efforts to expand its influence
in the Middle East.
"Can a nation that fills its prisons with human rights advocates and
journalists lecture others on the imperative to champion democratic
principles and human rights?" asked Patriarch Aram I at a ceremony
at the main Armenian church in the suburb of Antelias.
Lebanon has the largest Armenian community in the Arab world, the
majority of whom are descendants of those who survived the mass
killings.
In Turkey's largest city Istanbul, hundreds of Turkish, Armenian and
Kurdish protesters demonstrated in the central Taksim square.
"We are here to say this pain belongs to all of us ... We are trying
to share the pain of Armenians," said Senol Karakas, a spokesman for
the group.
The Yerevan procession was broadcast throughout the day on all
Armenia's national television channels, accompanied by sombre music,
documentary footage about the massacres and eyewitness accounts
from survivors.
The night before the commemoration, more than 8,000 people led by the
youth wing of the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party held a torch-lit
march through central Yerevan, where a group of activists staged
their now-traditional burning of a Turkish flag.
"Our action is a protest, a cry of indignation," said one of the
marchers, student Hamayak Serobian, demanding that Turks recognize
"the brutality of their ancestors".
In Jerusalem, hundreds of Armenians marched to the Turkish consulate.
They carried the red, blue and orange national flag of Armenia,
and held up placards bearing black and white photographs of piles of
dead bodies, and slogans reading: "Turkey guilty of genocide," and:
"Fight to stop the Turkish denial machine."
by Naharnet Newsdesk
NaharNet
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/38042-armenians-at-home-and-around-world-mark-genocide-anniversary
April 25 2012
Lebanon
Armenians around the world Tuesday marked the 97th anniversary of the
World War I massacre of their ancestors by Ottoman Turks, rekindling
anger at Turkey for denying the deaths were genocide.
Thousands took part in an annual procession to a hilltop memorial
in the Armenian capital Yerevan, carrying candles and flowers to lay
at the eternal flame at the center of the monument commemorating the
mass killings in what was then the Ottoman Empire.
"Today we, just as many, many others all over the world, bow to the
memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian genocide," President
Serzh Sarkisian, who led officials laying wreaths at the monument,
said in a statement.
"This day is one of those moments when the entire nation rallies
around the unification of our homeland," he said.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during World War
I as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by many
historians and several other countries.
Turkey angrily denies a genocide occurred and argues up to 500,000
Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in civil strife when
Armenians rose against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading
Russian troops.
U.S. President Barack Obama called for "a full, frank, and just
acknowledgment of the facts" of the "brutal" killings.
While denouncing the 1915 massacre as "one of the worst atrocities
of the 20th century," Obama did not use the term "genocide," but he
implicitly called for Turkey to acknowledge the role of its Ottoman
forefathers.
In Yerevan, 75-year-old Tsovinar Tumasian was among those in the
procession.
She said her father had fought to save women and children from Turkish
attacks and urged other countries to pressure Turkey to accept the
killings as genocide.
"If they are not forced to do so, they will not recognize the genocide
as fact. They think that with time, everyone will forget about it,"
Tumasian told Agence France Presse as her relatives helped her make
her way up the hill towards the monument.
The annual commemoration comes after the dispute between Armenia and
its neighbor Turkey was reignited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
recent attempt to bring in a law criminalizing denial of the genocide.
After a diplomatic row erupted, France's top court struck down the
law in February on the grounds that it infringed freedom of expression.
Both Sarkozy and his rival presidential candidate Francois Hollande
marked the Armenian anniversary in Paris by attending a ceremony and
expressing support for the passage of a newly-worded bill that would
outlaw genocide denial. France is home to a large Armenian community.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, thousands demonstrated in a suburb of the
capital Beirut and denounced Turkey's efforts to expand its influence
in the Middle East.
"Can a nation that fills its prisons with human rights advocates and
journalists lecture others on the imperative to champion democratic
principles and human rights?" asked Patriarch Aram I at a ceremony
at the main Armenian church in the suburb of Antelias.
Lebanon has the largest Armenian community in the Arab world, the
majority of whom are descendants of those who survived the mass
killings.
In Turkey's largest city Istanbul, hundreds of Turkish, Armenian and
Kurdish protesters demonstrated in the central Taksim square.
"We are here to say this pain belongs to all of us ... We are trying
to share the pain of Armenians," said Senol Karakas, a spokesman for
the group.
The Yerevan procession was broadcast throughout the day on all
Armenia's national television channels, accompanied by sombre music,
documentary footage about the massacres and eyewitness accounts
from survivors.
The night before the commemoration, more than 8,000 people led by the
youth wing of the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party held a torch-lit
march through central Yerevan, where a group of activists staged
their now-traditional burning of a Turkish flag.
"Our action is a protest, a cry of indignation," said one of the
marchers, student Hamayak Serobian, demanding that Turks recognize
"the brutality of their ancestors".
In Jerusalem, hundreds of Armenians marched to the Turkish consulate.
They carried the red, blue and orange national flag of Armenia,
and held up placards bearing black and white photographs of piles of
dead bodies, and slogans reading: "Turkey guilty of genocide," and:
"Fight to stop the Turkish denial machine."