France marked the National Remembrance Day of the Armenian Genocide in accordance with French President Emmanuel Macron order, declaring April 24 as a day of commemoration.
PM Edouard Philippe participated in the first ceremony in Paris.
As the press service of the French government noted, the decision was the realization of the promise made by Emmanuel Macron when he was the presidential candidate of the Republic, Macron also announced about this during annual dinner of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France.
The presidential decree of April 10, 2019 is intended to perpetuate the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, committed by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire.
"France is, first and foremost, the country that knows how to look history in the face,” he said at the time, noting that France was among the first countries to denounce the World War I slaughter of Armenians by their Ottoman rulers.
France’s recognition of the massacre as a genocide was enshrined in law in 2001, following a lengthy struggle that has strained relations with Turkey.
On the terrible day of April 24, 1915, about 600 Armenian intellectuals were arrested by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople and then sent to death. This sad day marks the beginning of the genocide that claimed the lives of a million people.
