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Friday is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, an annual commemoration usually marked by mass gatherings here in L.A., home to the largest Armenian community in the U.S.
But this year, local Armenians are finding other ways to join as a community and remember the systematic expulsion and mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish Empire more than a century ago.
Turkey refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, instead claiming the deaths were the result of World War I. Last year, both houses of U.S. Congress approved resolutions formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide for the first time.
Tens of thousands typically gather in front of L.A'.s Turkish Consulate every April 24 to honor lives lost in 1915 and call on the government of Turkey and other nations to recognize it as a genocide.
Under normal conditions, there would be another march through Little Armenia in East Hollywood and a prayer service at the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Memorial Monument in Montebello, the first Armenian Genocide memorial built outside of Armenia.
But organizers have canceled those events because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, on the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, they're asking local Armenians to do things like donate meals to the hungry, and to tune in to livestreamed commemorations instead.
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