April 24, 2008 - 16:09 AMT
Service for commemoration of Armenian genocide victims to be held in Pskov, Russia
Today, on April 24, archpriest Oleg Teor will hold a service for commemoration of victims of the Armenian Genocide in St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Pskov, Russia.

A cross in memory of the Genocide of Christian Armenian nation was erected near the Cathedral, Pskov news agency reports.

Mass arrests of the Armenian intellectual, religious, economic and political elite started in Constantinople on April 24, 1915, what resulted in entire annihilation of a whole pleiad of outstanding Armenian cultural workers. Writers, actors, musicians, teachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, businessmen, political and religious leaders were detained till the end of May 1915 without being incriminated anything. In the course of several weeks some 800 celebrated Armenians were arrested in Constantinople. By the end of summer there had been few of them left alive. During the period of 1915-1923, 1.5 million of Armenians were killed.