March Of 1.5 Million Armenians To The Memorial -

[MosJan]

MARCH OF 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS TO THE MEMORIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

 

About the Arrangements on 90th Anniversary

 

On April 24 of the current year 1.5 million people are going to march to Tsitsernakaberd and to other memorials to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. 1.5 million flowers will be laid and 1.5 million candles will be light in the Armenian churches in memory of the innocent victims.

 

90 years have passed from the days of the Armenian Genocide when millions of Armenians were deported and slaughtered in Turkey during the days of WW I. Hundreds of thousands defenseless children and elders, intelligentsia and peasantry were forced out from the home of their forefathers and were driven in the inlands of the empire, to the Arabian deserts. Most of them fell a victim to the Turkish police’s and diverse brigands’ attacks, tortures and robbery. Only few survivors found refuge in friendly countries, thousand of orphans were sheltered by international humanitarian organizations.

 

Those survivors formed part of Armenia’s population and the Armenian Diaspora.

 

So, the Armenian people that lived in its historic homeland for centuries was deprived of fatherland and its possession because of the policy conducted by Ottoman Turkey; the thread of cultural heritage was broken, the centuries-long civilization of the Armenian people was eliminated, national identity was distorted.

 

The progressive humanity voiced its protest and condemned this atrocity in due time.

 

Today the issue of the Armenian Genocide has turned into a common issue for the whole mankind. Many states and NGOs made a just assessment of the massacres. Their number increases every day.

 

But the world community has not made its complete and final assessment of the Genocide planned and carried out against the Armenian people in Ottoman Turkey. Moreover, modern Turkey not only refuses to recognize dark pages of its history but also refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and keeps the Armenian-Turkish border closed. Such a stance of a country standing on the threshold of the European Union and waiting for its turn for membership contradicts the very European values, it not only stymies improvement of situation in the region, particularly in the South Caucasus, but also heightens the tension.

 

By decree of the President of the Republic of Armenia a State Commission headed by the prime minister of Armenia was set up in 2003. The Commission has elaborated a wide program of arrangements in Armenia, Nagorno Artsax as well as in different countries of the world.

 

The arrangements will launch on the 20th of April. A workshop of Armenian scientists will take place on April 18-19 at the National Academy of Sciences and an international congress "Serious Crime, Extreme Challenge. Human Rights and Genocide" will be held in Yerevan hosting eminent scientists all over the world, state and political figures, art critics and journalists.

 

An evening of commemoration will be held at the Yerevan National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet on April 23 and an ecumenic liturgy with the participation of religious heads of different religions and confessions will be held at the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator on April 24.

 

On April 24, the memory of the Genocide victims will be honored in Armenia and Nagorno Artsax with a minute’s silence and the bells of all churches will toll.

 

Exhibitions, concerts, performances and other public events dedicated to that tragic period in the history of the Armenian people will take place on these April days.

 

State Commission for Organizing Arrangements on the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide