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[Yervant1]

Boulder to recognize Armenian genocide

By Erica Meltzer Camera Staff Writer  04/07/2015

Boulder will recognize April 24 as a day of remembrance of the Armenian genocide. 

City Councilman George Karakehian opened the City Council meeting Tuesday night by reading a resolution in support of the Day of Remembrance, which will be recognized at the state level as well.

Karakehian, who is of Armenian descent, choked up slightly as he noted that Hitler famously said, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" as he justified a policy of genocide in Europe. Karakehian asked the people of Boulder to remember the Armenians.

Historians estimate between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in Turkey during and after World War I, both through the outright massacre of able-bodied men and forced marches into the desert by the remaining women, children and elderly people. The genocide is commemorated in Armenia and in the diaspora on April 24, which marks a day in 1915 when Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and deported. Most of those deported were ultimately killed.

Though the term "genocide" was coined to describe the mass killing of Armenians, Turkey denies that the deaths constitute a genocide, and the federal government has not recognized the day of remembrance out of deference to Turkey, which is considered a strategic ally.