France will never forget the Armenian genocide – Hollande
24.04.2015,
15:49
France will never forget the tragedy of the Armenian genocide, French President Francois Hollande said at the solemn ceremony to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian genocide in Yerevan on Friday.
YEREVAN, April 24. /ARKA/. France will never forget the tragedy of the Armenian genocide, French President Francois Hollande said at the solemn ceremony to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian genocide in Yerevan on Friday.
Delegations from more than 40 foreign countries and various international organizations, ambassadors and parliament delegations paid tribute today to the memory of the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey at Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial. The ceremony was attended by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of France Francois Hollande, President of Serbia Tomislav Nikolic and President of Cyprus Nikas Anastasiadis.
France officially recognized the Armenian mass-killings as "genocide" in 2001. He also said it was France, together with Russia and Great Britain, that issued a joint declaration in May 1915 condemning the mass killings as a crime against humanity.
The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century.
According to Armenian and many other historians, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed starting in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the government of Turkey.
Turkey has been denying it for decades.
The Armenian Genocide was recognized by tens of countries. The first was Uruguay that did so in 1965. Other nations are Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, 43 U.S. states. It was recognized also by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. –0--
