ARMENIA REMEMBERING VICTIMS OF 1915 OTTOMAN GENOCIDE
ITAR-TASS
April 24, 2012 Tuesday 08:14 AM GMT+4
Russia
Republic of Armenia is marking the Day of Victims of the 1915 Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire. Those tragic events claimed the lives of 1.5
million people.
Thousands upon thousands of Armenians are expected to get together
later in the day near the monument to the victims of genocide. In 1967,
the government of Soviet Armenia put up the monument in Yerevan as
a symbol of grief for the dead and a resurrection of the nation.
Since everyone who comes there traditionally brings flowers, the
mound of bouquet around the memorial's eternal flame becomes taller
than an average person by the end of the day.
Monday night, the activists of the youth and students organization
of the nationalistic Armenian Revolutionary Party /Dashnaktsutyun/
organized a torch procession along the streets of Yerevan.
Armenian communities all across the world will hold commemorative
events Tuesday.
The Armenian community in worldwide dispersal reaches 5 million people,
including 2.5 million living in Russia, about a million living in the
U.S. and 500,000 in Franceand that is why monuments to the victims
of the Ottoman genocide.
The posterity of those who survived the tragedy of 1915 will come to
the monuments and the buildings of Armenian Churches later in the day.
Marches, pickets, public meetings will be held near the buildings of
Turkish embassies across the world.
International recognition of the facts of the Ottoman Genocide has
been proclaimed a priority of Armenia's foreign policy at home. The
first large-scale genocide of the 20th century was later condemned
by a number of countries, and Greece and France even passed special
laws on it.
In 1995, Russia's State Duma passed a disapproval of the persecution
of Armenians.
The original of the document is now kept in the Museum of Genocide
that was opened the same year next to the memorial.
Today's Armenia has 126 persons who survived the tragedy 97 years
ago, including 96 women and thirty men, says Nelli Bagdassarian,
the chief of the national statistics service.
The problem of genocide has marred the relations between two
neighboring countries, Armenia and Turkey, for many long years. Even
now the Turkish government refuses to recognize the tragic events
of 1915, describing them as "legitimate actions on the part of the
Ottoman authorities towards the Armenian population of the Empire,
as the Armenians sympathized with Russia in the conditions of World
War I and supported the Russian government."
Armenia and Turkey have a 330-kilometers-long common border but they
do not have diplomatic relations.
ITAR-TASS
April 24, 2012 Tuesday 08:14 AM GMT+4
Russia
Republic of Armenia is marking the Day of Victims of the 1915 Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire. Those tragic events claimed the lives of 1.5
million people.
Thousands upon thousands of Armenians are expected to get together
later in the day near the monument to the victims of genocide. In 1967,
the government of Soviet Armenia put up the monument in Yerevan as
a symbol of grief for the dead and a resurrection of the nation.
Since everyone who comes there traditionally brings flowers, the
mound of bouquet around the memorial's eternal flame becomes taller
than an average person by the end of the day.
Monday night, the activists of the youth and students organization
of the nationalistic Armenian Revolutionary Party /Dashnaktsutyun/
organized a torch procession along the streets of Yerevan.
Armenian communities all across the world will hold commemorative
events Tuesday.
The Armenian community in worldwide dispersal reaches 5 million people,
including 2.5 million living in Russia, about a million living in the
U.S. and 500,000 in Franceand that is why monuments to the victims
of the Ottoman genocide.
The posterity of those who survived the tragedy of 1915 will come to
the monuments and the buildings of Armenian Churches later in the day.
Marches, pickets, public meetings will be held near the buildings of
Turkish embassies across the world.
International recognition of the facts of the Ottoman Genocide has
been proclaimed a priority of Armenia's foreign policy at home. The
first large-scale genocide of the 20th century was later condemned
by a number of countries, and Greece and France even passed special
laws on it.
In 1995, Russia's State Duma passed a disapproval of the persecution
of Armenians.
The original of the document is now kept in the Museum of Genocide
that was opened the same year next to the memorial.
Today's Armenia has 126 persons who survived the tragedy 97 years
ago, including 96 women and thirty men, says Nelli Bagdassarian,
the chief of the national statistics service.
The problem of genocide has marred the relations between two
neighboring countries, Armenia and Turkey, for many long years. Even
now the Turkish government refuses to recognize the tragic events
of 1915, describing them as "legitimate actions on the part of the
Ottoman authorities towards the Armenian population of the Empire,
as the Armenians sympathized with Russia in the conditions of World
War I and supported the Russian government."
Armenia and Turkey have a 330-kilometers-long common border but they
do not have diplomatic relations.