Armenia’s president lays a wreath at Genocide Memorial

YEREVAN, April 24. /ARKA/. Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan paid floral tribute to Armenian genocide victims at Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan.

The president was accompanied by the premier Hovik Abrahamyan, head of Armenia’s constitutional court Gagik Harutiunyan, members of the government and the parliament.

The clerical leadership headed by Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin the Second will hold a service in front of the “eternal fire” at Tsitsernakaberd. 

Today Armenians are commemorating and honoring around the world the victims of the Armenian genocide committed in Ottoman Empire. Every year on April 24 tens of thousands people from the Armenian capital and the provinces are taking flowers to Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan

As usual, the Genocide Memorial will be visited by accredited diplomats, hosted politicians, cultural workers, intellectuals from various countries. Mass protests will be staged outside Turkish embassies over the world. 

A traditional march under torch light and Turkish flag burning was held by youth in Yerevan on Wednesday night, on the eve of the commemoration

A joint statement made by Russia, France and Great Britain in May 1915 was the first international response to extermination of Armenians in Ottoman Empire. The crime against the Armenian nation was defined as a “new crime against humanity and civilization”. The super powers warned the Ottoman Empire of the responsibility for the crime. The US Senate passed decisions on status of Armenians in 1916, 1919 and 1920. 

Uruguay’s parliament was the first to pass a special decree recognizing and condemning the tragedy of 1915 (on April 20 1915). Laws and decisions on the Armenian genocide were later adopted by the European parliament, Russia’s State Duma and parliaments of other countries, particularly of Cyprus, Argentina, Canada, Greece, Lebanon, Belgium, France, Sweden, Slovakia, Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Venezuela, Lithuania, Chile and Vatican.

The Armenian Genocide is recognized by some forty US states, some states of Brazil and Australia, about 40 communes of Italy, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Swiss cantons of Geneva and Vaud, as well as by tens of international organizations, including World Council of Churches, Association of Genocide Scholars, Human Rights’ League, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, US union of Jewish communities. –0—