FRESNO. - The Armenian Community of the San Joaquin Valley will break ground on a monument dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide this Sunday, Azbarez reports.

The monument will embody symbols of cultural meaning to the Armenian people with its principal components arranged in a circular pattern and angled inwards, reminiscent of the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Martyrs Monument in Armenia. The nine pillars that will comprise the body of the structure represent the six provinces of historic Armenia, Cilicia, the Diaspora, and the Republic of Armenia. An incomplete halo will be set above the columns, signifying both the fracture left by the Genocide and the unity of the Armenian people.

The construction of the memorial will be christened on April 24, 2015.

As many as 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives in the period 1915-1923 at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government. On April 24th, 1915, the Young Turk regime arrested and eventually executed hundreds of Armenian religious, academic, and political leaders that was the first step in its intent to exterminate an entire people. Many succumbed to starvation and exhaustion during state-mandated deportations or “death marches” that left Western Armenia devoid of its native inhabitants even to this day. Others were murdered outright, often in ways that defy all sense of humanity.

According to historians, legal experts, and more than 20 nations throughout the world, the planned and systematic nature of these atrocities clearly constitute a genocide as defined by the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.