Tigran Sargsyan: today Armenians bow to memory of Armenian Genocide victims

April 24, 2010 - 21:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that today the Armenians bow to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. “I address you not only as Armenia’s Prime Minister, but also as a man, whose ancestors had survived the atrocity of the Genocide and who mourns over the loss of our ancestors together with you. We require that this crime against the Armenian people gets a relevant legal, political and moral assessment,” the Prime Minister said in his address on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.