Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news on Armenian Genocide 107th anniversary as of 24.04.22:
- On April 24, 2022, Armenians worldwide and the progressive society observe the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide; the first genocide of the 20th century.
Armenian Genocide was carried out in several phases. But its beginning is considered April 24, 1915.
From 1892 to 1923, Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II and later the Young Turks subjected Armenians of Western Armenia, Cilicia, and the Ottoman Empire to mass deportation and extermination.
Around 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923. More than half a million Armenians dispersed around the world. As a result of the Genocide, Western Armenia was left without its indigenous people, and the Armenians were dispossessed of their historical homeland.
- Armenian Genocide is recognized by numerous countries including Russia, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, the Vatican, and most US states. It was first acknowledged in 1965 by Uruguay.
Commemorations of this tragedy are held in virtually all countries where Armenians live. The main remembrance events, however, take place at the Armenian Genocide Memorial on Tsitsernakaberd Hill, in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.
Armenian authorities, members of governments, representatives of the diplomatic corps, political parties, members of the Armenian diaspora, and numerous guests visit Tsitsernakaberd on this day to pay tribute to the Genocide victims.
The annual daylong procession began with an official wreath-laying ceremony at the hilltop memorial led by Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and President Vahagn Khachaturyan.
- Thousands assembled in Yerevan on Sunday to participate in the annual march to commemorate the anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The annual torchlight procession dedicated to the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide this year had the slogan "Wake up, Lao."
Second President Robert Kocharyan and third President Serzh Sargsyan also took part in this procession.
And Artur Vanetsyan—the leader of the opposition "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly (NA) and chairman of the opposition Homeland party of Armenia—, who has been on a sit-in for already a week now at Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan, and his supporters joined this torchlight procession as well.
The torchlight procession headed to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.
Along with the torchlight procession in Yerevan, there was a similar procession in the Artsakh capital Stepanakert.
Torchlight processions have been held every year in both Yerevan and Stepanakert. But this year these processions are more crucial amid the current crisis in the Artsakh issue.
- Turkey continues to deny a premeditated government effort to exterminate Ottoman Turkey’s Armenian population.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Armenians themselves massacred Muslim civilians and that their mass deportations to a Syrian desert was “the most reasonable action that could be taken” by the Ottoman government.
Meanwhile, member of the Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan, who is of Armenian descent, has submitted a bill on recognition of the Armenian Genocide to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, reports Agos.
The bill submitted on the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide also demands the identification of those responsible for the crime.
However, Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Mustafa Sentop has returned HDP lawmaker Garo Paylan’s bill on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, maintaining that it contradicts the provisions of the Rules of Procedure, NTV reports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in turn, makes the gesture of the racist “Grey Wolves” organization to demonstrators from the Armenian community in Uruguay who were marching the day before the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
- The international community continues to refer to the Armenian Genocide.
The US President Joe Biden said in a statement that “107 years later, the American people continue to honor all Armenians who perished in the genocide.”
“After enduring a genocide, the Armenian people were determined to rebuild their community and their culture, so often in new homes and new lands, including the United States,” he said.
The Cyprus government, in turn, said that Turkey continues to deny its crimes against the Armenian people
The French Embassy also expressed support and sympathy for the Armenian people.
While the British Ambassador, in turn, laid a wreath in Armenian Genocide memorial complex in Yerevan.