April 26, 2004 - 18:47 AMT
MONUMENT TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS ERECTED IN GEORGIAN TOWN OF AKHALTSIKH
A khachkar (cross stone) monument symbolizing the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey was unveiled in the Georgian town of Akhaltsikh April 24. To remind, two days earlier the monument was dismounted by the Georgian police as "there was no permission for its erection" at the top of one of the hills adjoining the town. However, at the urgent request of the local Armenians, who arranged actions at the office of Nikoloz Nikolozashvili, the Georgian President's representative in Samtskhe Javakhetia, the monument was returned to its place. Head of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Vazgen Mirzakhanian expressed his gratitude to the Georgian authorities for their being reasonable to have prevented complications around this issue. As reported by A-info agency, the National Public Union of Akhaltsikhe and Benevolent Union after Charles Aznavour initiated the erection of the monument.