Head of EU Delegation to Armenia Piotr Switalski visited Armenian Genocide Memorial.

He paid a tribute to the victims of the tragic events in 1915, EU delegation said on Facebook.

During the First World War, the Turkish authorities accused Armenians of sympathizing with Russia and used this as a pretext to declare the entire Armenian population their enemy. Under the order of the Ottoman rulers, the mass deportation and massacre of Armenians commenced on this day in 1915.

The subsequent events that occurred until 1923 are considered by many historians as a state-backed mass murder - genocide. The death toll of this tragedy exceeds 1.5 million people; the half of all Armenians at the turn of the last century.

Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire is formally recognized by numerous countries including Russia, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, and most US states. But it was first acknowledged in 1965 by Uruguay. This calamity is also recognized by the Vatican, the European Parliament, and the World Council of Churches.