Armenian Genocide exhibition opens in Moscow

YEREVAN, April 20. / ARKA /. An exhibition devoted to the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire has opened in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. The exhibition is one of a long string of events in the Russian capital city commemorating the 100th anniversary of the genocide marked  by Armenians around the world on April 24.

The head of the Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Ezras Nersisyan, told Tass news agency that the exposition not only shows  the tragedy of the Armenians but serves also as a reminder of friendship of Armenian and Russian peoples and ‘the power of faith and strength, allowing death to win.’

The exhibition has on display photographs of 1915-1923, testimonies  of Russian soldiers, officers, journalists, who witnessed the genocide and those who participated in the rescue of people. The exhibition is open until April 24.

In the coming days, Moscow will host about a dozen of commemorative events - the opening of the first Armenian museum, memorial services and concerts at the Moscow Conservatory. Commemorative events are being held in another 600 Russian cities.

"The death of innocent people is  not only the pain of our fellow Armenians, it is the  pain all of us, the entire Russian people, the entire  mankind", Yevgeny Yeremin, a senior official from the Russian presidential administration, said at the opening ceremony. 

"Russian Armenians have become an integral part of our multiethnic people,. We stood  shoulder to shoulder defending  our freedom in World War II,"  he said.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923.-0-